You Are Your Greatest Obstacle

Last night my Sensei said this to me. He said that the greatest obstacle we encounter in life is ourselves, and I thought, yeah you’re right. But I didn’t really think about what it meant for me until now.

We’re our own greatest obstacles because we want a specific outcome but don’t always want the process, or we want a particular lifestyle but want an outcome that doesn’t align with it.

The Black Belt

The black belt isn’t focused on getting the black belt. That’s the intention behind the practice, sure, but she’d keep going even if there were no belt. She’d keep going because she desires to learn, to improve, to be stronger and more capable. The belt is just the cherry on top.

Intentions to Results

Your intention drives your actions and makes or breaks your success. It’s your intention as a goal and your intention as a reason for why you want this result. Your intention is in some ways satisfaction in and of itself because if your intention is: I want this because I want the lifestyle & all that comes with it, you’ll have it already. If your intention is: I want this and then I’ll be happy, you’ll be forever chasing your goals.

The results are already showing up for us beginning the moment we set intentions and align with them. We don’t always see it, but that’s kind of the point. By acknowledging that they exist now, we’re opening our minds to seeing how the intentions are already present in our lives and amplifying them. We do this, and we find our process which was the ultimate goal all along.

Blood, Sweat & Tears

It’s dirty & messy. It hurts a bit at times, but we do it anyway. And what once hurt more begins to hurt less. We find strength where our weaknesses used to be, and then we find more weaknesses. These weaknesses, though, are not hindrances - they’re opportunities for improvement that we get excited about.

We like when we get hit, not when it takes us out, but when it’s just enough to say: hey, look out! you need to focus a bit more on this area. That’s how we get even better.

We like when we’re tired, not because we like being exhausted but because we know it doesn’t feel good to feel good and rested all the time - that’s not progress & it doesn’t actually make our mind & body feel good when we do it for too long.

We’re a paradox constantly trying to balance rest & effort, trying to become the best version of ourselves because we don’t know any other way to be. So we just are, and we keep going even when it feels like we don’t know where we’re going because the pull of our intention won’t let us stop.

The Light in the Darkness

We’re black belts only because we were once white belts, and that brightness, that eagerness of the beginner still shines through. It’s in many ways even brighter now that we wear a black belt because we understand what it means to be a beginner. We understand it because we feel even more like one than we did when we started, not because know less but because we’re aware of how much more there is that there’ll never be enough time to learn.

We shine in the darkness of infinity. Our intentions were so intentional that they separated us from the rest, the rest that stopped at the obstacle, the rest that found rest & succumbed to it, the rest.

The Obstacle

I challenge you to reflect on where obstacles exist in your life and how you are in relation to them. Are you working through them? Are you feeling defeated by them? Are you feeling like you have no obstacles?

If by chance, you feel there are no obstacles, look deeper because they have hold over you so much so that they’re merged with your identity. We must always be aware and on guard of these sneaky obstacles in a way that acknowledges that they are always present & lurking.

These obstacles are not to be feared, but they are meant to be confronted and that can be frightening. It’s terrifying when we’re unaware and unprepared, and that is why we must confront our obstacles one at a time to strengthen ourselves for even greater ones.

Book recommendations are books I’ve read that I felt drawn to share with you as I created this blog post. These are affiliate links from Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases❤