A Lesson in 'Perceived Obstacles'

So I learned something in training at work today. ...Don't act so surprised. ;)

I came across a concept that struck home because it's specific to struggles I've been internalizing for some time now.

...Is it me, or can anyone else take a look at another person's life and formulate unclouded, crystal clear answers (/suggestions) for their problems? ...Yet, when it comes to your own life and problems, the lights flick off and you find yourself bumping into walls? ...Walls you surely you built on your own?

"A perceived obstacle is an obstacle you create because of your own values. It may or may not be real." ...I extracted this from some sales training module, so I'm not even sure it's worthy of a citing. But I have endured a hell of a lot of obstacles, People. And it got me thinking..... Just how many of them are and were self-induced?

The module went on to encourage its reader not to reveal their perceptions until these perceptions were somehow confirmed. ...Though this is likely an age-old sales trade secret, it was news to me. And though it seems, in hindsight, to be such a common-sensical notion, why am I still bumping into walls?

And as if creating my own obstacles and knowing it isn't bad enough, I seem to have this innate need to verbalize "my truth" to just about anyone who will listen. ...I do not discriminate. This approach seems to backfire every time, but it's almost a compulsion to put my perception on display. To lay my cards on the table, despite the fact that these cards read every misconception or preconceived notion my little head can dream up.

Is this the mid-twenties knowledge gain that I keep hearing so much about? The forced, life-altering considerations that the older and wiser refer to when they say they wouldn't relive their twenties if you gave them bundles of money?

If I can take anything away from this seemingly ordinary quote, hopefully it will be the ability to step back and differentiate the genuine obstacle from the one floating in my head alone. And, if at all possible, how to keep a damn card in my hand.