"The Boulders Are the Way" + My 7th Book was Just Published
April 12, 2025
“The Boulders Are the Way”
There seems to be a consistent pattern, especially in modern times, that some people feel that when their “path” seems obstructed by “boulders” it might mean that the “path” is not meant for them to climb. The idea of “if something makes you uncomfortable, it’s bad for you” has destroyed so many lives.
What if, instead, those people consider that the “boulders” that are on their “path” could be the means of creating a “path” that they need to take in order to reach something that if, often, forfeited because most people give up?
What are the “boulders?” They are difficulties, self-doubt, frustration, regret, pain, anger, fear, discouragement and assumptions that, some of which, are not based on facts.
Imagine if you wanted to create a vegetable garden. Author Friedrich Nietzsche wrote: “One can dispose of one’s drives like a gardener and, though few know it, cultivate the shoots of anger, pity, curiosity, and vanity as productively and profitably as a beautiful fruit tree on a trellis.” Would you become frustrated because the weeds wanted to take-over your vegetable garden? I hope not. Would you, consistently, make sure that the weeds are pulled out so your vegetable garden has a change to produce? I hope so.
The frustration of the weeds, in a vegetable garden, can become the determination to make sure that that the vegetable garden thrives. The anger, of the never-ending struggle, can become the “compost of consistency” in your life.
Some of “boulders” are huge and takes many dozens of attempts to try to get them out of the way to clear your “path” for the next part of your life-journey.
Author Friedrich Nietzsche shared: “He who has a WHY to live can bear almost any how.”
Many people, while climbing their “path” through life forget where they are heading and, more importantly, why they are heading where they are going. When you and I “lose our why” the “boulders” that are in the way, can become an excuse to give up and retreat back down the “path.”
What if you and I “repurposed” the “boulders” that are blocking our “path” in order to leverage them instead of complaining about them? Can they be “repurposed” for us to walk on them instead of sinking into the “mud-of-discouragement?”
The “boulders” on your path, that you choose to hammer away time-after-time-after-time, creates “mental-biceps” that you could have never imagined having before you took your first step on your “path.”
The easy way is for most people but it is not for you.
The “path” seems, at times, to steep to continue until you look back and see how far you have climbed so far. This realization can release those wonderful neurotransmitters that you push you to keep climbing.
The destruction of the “boulders” in your life transforms you into someone you could not have imagined years ago. They transform you into someone who sees the “boulders” as part of the “path” to your destination while understanding that most people see the “boulders” as a sign-to-give up-on-their-goals-and dreams-in-life.
The friction of you hammering away at the “boulders” in your life creates internal stresses that, one day, create irreversible cracks in your “boulders” that can become stepping-stones for you and others in life.
Author Jacob A. Riis shared: “When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that last blow that did it, but all that had gone before.”
The most successful people, throughout history, have been “boulder-busters.”
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F3XQKBRC
BREAKING NEWS!!
MY 7TH BOOK IS NOW AVAILABLE, IN THE USA AND GREAT BRITAIN, AT AMAZON.COM!
"Default Settings: Challenging What You Think You Know" explores the concept of "default settings" in life—deeply ingrained beliefs, habits, and societal norms that shape our thoughts and actions. It emphasizes the importance of questioning these defaults to foster personal growth, innovation, and critical thinking.
Use this link to order your copy: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F3XQKBRC
I Believe in YOU!
John W. Carver, LUTCF
john@johnwcarver.com