By Diana Brown
DG District 4250 2025-2026
A quick question: Is everything always easy? When we aspire to do something new, to respond to challenges, to be creative, is that easy?
When we face unexpected situations, or conflicts, is the solution obvious? Is the road to the answers direct, without detours?
Are relationships stress-free? Work relationships, personal relationships, friend and acquaintance relationships, are they always smooth sailing?
I would answer a rotund no! The human condition is innately variable; frequently, we react instinctively, emotionally, when experience has taught us that we should pause before responding and acting! So how do we arrive at the state of control, cool calm?
Philosophers from centuries before us have shared their wisdom and experiences in understanding the human condition. And one is outstanding, Marcus Aurelius, who besides being a Stoic philosopher, was also an exceptional general and one of the “Five Great Emperors of Rome.”
Today, we can discover his meditations in slender volumes that are bursting with examples of how stoicism can be a roadmap for success, however we may define it. And these brief maxims of wisdom should be envisaged and applied, of course, after some study of the matter.
The gist of the vision is that any and all obstacles are opportunities! For growth, for creativity, for new openings! Fear of the unknown may make us stumble upon this path, but as the philosopher Nassim Nicholas Taleb expressed, defining a Stoic as one who: “transforms fear into prudence, pain into transformation, mistakes into initiation and desire into undertaking.”
So, upon encountering an obstacle, a difficulty, the wise ones recommend three steps: see everything clearly, pause and analyze; act correctly and accordingly, do what is possible and endure what we must. What once blocked our path, transforms it to a new one; what hinders now advances to new actions as the obstacle creates innovative opportunities, it depends upon us to recognize new options, and start again. Nothing is coincidence, all that occurs is an opening to accept new challenges, new actions, new opportunities for service.
As leaders in all aspects of our lives, we should welcome challenges and the ensuing openings; accept fear as an incentive! As Frank Herbert shares, in his extraordinary novel Dune, “I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.” Fear makes us aware.
Let us not shy away from obstacles, they are inevitable. Let us open our door to the opportunities they unlock!
