“A good person dyes events with his own color…and turns whatever happens to his own benefit.” - SenecaFrom the outside looking in, the last several weeks have been disaster after disaster for me:Death in the familySeveral deals that have been worked on for 6+ months fell apart at the last minuteI might need to sue someone for egregious breach of contract and unexpected damagesOn and on and on...I've thought of several books over and over again during this period to cope. One of them was The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph by Ryan Holiday (@ryanholiday). It has helped me to turn problems upside-down, look at them through a different lens, and even uncover unique opportunities.The Obstacle Is The Way is a collection of stories and principles about Stoicism, which I consider to be the ultimate personal "operating system" for anyone who wants to thrive in high-stress environments and situations.If you want to be antifragile like Thomas Jefferson, Marcus Aurelius, Bill Belichick, and many of the most dominant investors in history, Stoicism offers a real playbook. If you want to make better decisions, if you want to smile when other people cower, it offers real tools.To quote Andy Grove, former CEO of Intel, "Bad companies are destroyed by crisis. Good companies survive them. Great companies are improved by them." What if you could be a person who is improved by crisis? At the very least, it would give you opportunities no one else can see, let alone grasp. Much more important, it would make you a happier human being.Here are a few sample chapters from The Obstacle Is The Way. Please enjoy!This episode is brought to you by Teeter. Inversion therapy, which uses gravity and your own body weight to decompress the spine or relieve pressure on the discs and surrounding nerves, seems to help with a whole slew of conditions. And just as a general maintenance program, it's one of my favorite things to do.Since 1981, more than three million people have put their trust in Teeter inversion tables for relief, and it's the only inversion table brand that's been both safety-certified by Underwriters Laboratories (UL) and registered with the FDA as a class one medical device. For a limited time, my listeners can get the Teeter inversion table with bonus accessories and a free pair of gravity boots — a savings of over $148 — by going to Teeter.com/Tim!***If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading the reviews!For show notes and past guests, please visit tim.blog/podcast.Sign up for Tim’s email newsletter (“5-Bullet Friday”) at tim.blog/friday.For transcripts of episodes, go to tim.blog/transcripts.Interested in sponsoring the podcast? Please fill out the form at tim.blog/sponsor.Discover Tim’s books: tim.blog/books.Follow Tim:Twitter: twitter.com/tferriss Instagram: instagram.com/timferrissFacebook: facebook.com/timferriss YouTube: youtube.com/timferrissPast guests on The Tim Ferriss Show include Jerry Seinfeld, Hugh Jackman, Dr. Jane Goodall, LeBron James, Kevin Hart, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jamie Foxx, Matthew McConaughey, Esther Perel, Elizabeth Gilbert, Terry Crews, Sia, Yuval Noah Harari, Malcolm Gladwell, Madeleine Albright, Cheryl Strayed, Jim Collins, Mary Karr, Maria Popova, Sam Harris, Michael Phelps, Bob Iger, Edward Norton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Neil Strauss, Ken Burns, Maria Sharapova, Marc Andreessen, Neil Gaiman, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Jocko Willink, Daniel Ek, Kelly Slater, Dr. Peter Attia, Seth Godin, Howard Marks, Dr. Brené Brown, Eric Schmidt, Michael Lewis, Joe Gebbia, Michael Pollan, Dr. Jordan Peterson, Vince Vaughn, Brian Koppelman, Ramit Sethi, Dax Shepard, Tony Robbins, Jim Dethmer, Dan Harris, Ray Dalio, Naval Ravikant, Vitalik Buterin, Elizabeth Lesser, Amanda Palmer, Katie Haun, Sir Richard Branson, Chuck Palahniuk, Arianna Huffington, Reid Hoffman, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Rick Rubin, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Darren Aronofsky, and many more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This episode discusses a range of topics, from running at high altitudes to asking personal questions to questioning conventional wisdom. The ad in this episode is for Tim's own email newsletter, Five Bullet Friday, which delivers five short and interesting bullet points to your inbox every Friday.
In this episode, Tim talks about his recent struggles with staying in shape and discusses strategies for getting back on track. He also advertises a free vitamin D supplement and travel packs offer from Athletic Greens for his audience.
Real strength is not in pretending emotions don't exist, but in controlling and domesticating them. John Glenn's ability to keep his heart rate under 100 beats per minute during a nearly day-long orbit exemplifies the power of emotional equanimity.
The Germans' World War II strategy was to concentrate mobile divisions into rapid, narrow offensive forces that caught their enemies off-guard, causing them to surrender. The Allies were only successful when they were able to see the opportunity within the obstacle presented by the German forces.
The author discusses the benefits of adversity, including keeping you alert, motivating you, helping you appreciate friendships, and providing an instructive antilogue.
In this episode, the host discusses the importance of finishing tasks both big and small, and how the head coach of the University of Alabama football team emphasizes this concept.
The process is about doing the right things now and subjugating resistance little by little to move forward. By depending on and trusting in the process, we can replace our fears and discard our expectations.
The speaker emphasizes on the importance of choosing how you feel about things that happen to you, and suggests that feeling great about them can help wear down obstacles in our lives.
Inversion therapy can be helpful in treating a wide range of conditions by using gravity and body weight to decompress the spine and relieve pressure on the surrounding nerves, as explained by a world record holder in weightlifting. The Teeter inversion table with bonus accessories and a free pair of gravity boots can be found at teeter.com/tim.