Stand up to your obstacles and do something about them. You will find that they haven’t half the strength you think they have.

Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993), a prominent American minister and popularizer of “positive thinking,” frequently urged audiences to confront fear and discouragement through action, faith, and disciplined optimism. This line reflects the mid‑20th‑century self-help and motivational ethos associated with his preaching and writing, especially as he counseled people facing personal setbacks, anxiety, and perceived limitations. The sentiment fits Peale’s recurring theme that many “obstacles” are magnified by worry and shrink when met with decisive effort, a message he delivered in sermons, lectures, and best-selling inspirational books aimed at everyday readers rather than academic theology.

The quote argues that obstacles derive much of their power from our anticipation of them. By “standing up” to difficulties—meeting them directly and taking concrete steps—we test our fearful assumptions against reality. Peale suggests that action is clarifying: once we engage a problem, we often discover it is more manageable than imagined, because uncertainty and rumination had inflated it. The line also implies a moral psychology: courage is not the absence of obstacles but the willingness to confront them, and confidence grows through doing. In Peale’s broader outlook, this practical courage is reinforced by an inner posture of hope and belief.