Obstacles Into Fuel
“Our inward power, when it obeys nature, reacts to events by accommodating itself to what it faces - to what is possible. It needs no specific material. It pursues its own aims as circumstances allow; it turns obstacles into fuel. As a fire overwhelms what would have quenched a lamp. What’s thrown on top of the conflagration is absorbed, consumed by it - and makes it burn still brighter.”
- Marcus Aurelius
Nature, to the Stoics, had a few meanings. Sometimes it meant god (up to interpretation to a Stoic), fate, how the world works, or some sort of combination of them all. Here, I see nature meaning fate. There are things that we cannot control and events that we cannot foresee. “Good” and “bad” things happen to everyone. The trajectory afterwards is what we have some power over.
Having a pulmonary embolism taught me that. It’s something that can potentially leave a lasting sense of intrepidation and hold you back. Luckily for me the bike gives me the most confidence out of anything in life. I had the perfect thing to overcome that fear and not let it get in the way of taking the next step, to do “what was possible” each day. What was possible immediately post PE was much less than what was possible pre PE. But this quote from Marcus Aurelius helped me break down every day into a small step. Eventually those steps added up and I was back to what was possible before. At the start I couldn’t have known it was possible to get back to one hundred percent. Honestly, it wouldn’t have mattered to get there. I believe that what is fundamentally important is to avoid stagnation and continually seek progress. Obstacles, depending how we react to them, can lead to either one.
I have offended people with this thought before. Of course there is a period of time that is needed after something “bad” happens where feelings manifest inside. The grieving process exists. We need time for things to settle down before we can see the path forward clearly. In the past I have spoken too soon when people don’t want to hear it. But there is real possibility of getting stuck in that process. Sometimes we get stuck in it forever. Many times longer than is truly needed. We would really benefit to remember we can overcome anything and make the best out of it.
The people that we admire and who seem to achieve the most success understand this. “Failure” and setbacks have the least negative impact on them. They get up and dust themselves off the easiest. They seek the “what is possible.”
Nelson Mandela said, “As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I'd still be in prison.” In the twenty seven years Nelson Mandela was in prison he must’ve read many books. Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations was allegedly one of them. This wisdom, leaving his bitterness and hatred behind, had to have been cultivated long before the day he left prison. If he didn’t leave prison the man he was would he have gone on to become the man he became?
Jim Abbott was born without a right hand in 1967. Imagine how many things people must’ve told him he couldn’t do because of this? Imagine what people would’ve said if he told them he wanted to play baseball? He pitched a no hitter in 1993 for the New York Yankees.
Epictetus and Diogenes the Cynic were slaves. Later in life Epictetus formed a school of philosophy. Because of his philosophy Diogenes literally didn’t care that he was a slave. The only thing that mattered to him was his character. He was perfectly content with any external circumstance. He was beloved so much that when he died cities erected statues of him.
Viktor Frankl made it through the holocaust using and developing his Logotherapy. Imagine how many people he was able to help?
I’m not saying that everyone can or will become president, a professional athlete, or a famous philosopher or psychologist. Sometimes setbacks and events truly do limit what was possible before. The point is that setbacks don’t have to keep us from making progress. They are not an end point. They are no reason to not get back up and try again, or try for the first time.
I have encountered so much anxiety and sadness about performance in myself and in others. Does it need to stop us? Or even delay us?
