The Alchemist By Paulo Coelho
Headline
Madonna had this to say about The Alchemist:
“The alchemist is a beautiful book about magic, dreams and the treasures we seek elsewhere and then find on our doorstep.”
The Alchemist is a beautifully written and intriguing novel about one man’s journey into foreign lands in pursuit of treasure and wealth.
In essence, it is about following your dreams, listening to your heart, and enjoying the journey…
Here are three of the most powerful lessons
I gleaned from reading The Alchemist:
Goal-setting:
Dreams breathe life into life. Goals make the journey of life a worthwhile experience. To quote the author, “It is the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.”
In the Strangest Secret, Earl Nightingale defines success as the progressive realisation of a worthy ideal.
When you have goals to pursue, you have a motive to wake up every morning and take a few decisive actions towards achieving your desires. Goals give your life purpose, they give it meaning. If your goals are in the service of humanity, they endear you to the hearts of the people you serve, they help you to attract the right kinds of people.
When you are clear about what you want to achieve, it becomes that much easier to make decisions about which actions to take, and whom to associate with.
“To realise one’s destiny is a person’s only real obligation,”
writes Paulo Coelho. And he claims that people are capable,
at any moment in their lives, of doing what they dream of.
All you have to do is make the right choices that lead you to your destiny. Make a decision to become what you dream of becoming – then move into action – you don’t have to know every detail
about how it’s going to happen for you.
Paulo Coelho says, “When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” Note that he doesn’t say,
“The universe does it for you.” ultimately, it all comes down to you… what will YOU do – how far will YOU go to realise your dreams?
The author says that the world’s greatest lie is the belief that at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what’s happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. It is indeed a lie; fate doesn’t control your life – you do!
We Learn About Sacrifice:
Everything in life has its price. For Santiago, it was having to travel
a very long distance and being away from his friends,
family and the lady he loved so dearly.
So now the question is: what price are you willing to pay to achieve your dreams? What momentary pleasures are you willing to postpone in order to work on your dreams?
Many people fear taking the plunge and venturing into the unknown, they would rather stay in their comfort zone and be miserable.
They worry about the potential dangers they might face in their quest for success, and they dream up all sorts of scary scenarios that might actually never happen. They ask themselves disempowering questions like, “What if I’m not qualified, or not good enough? What if I fail?
What if I lose everything?
For these people, Paulo Coelho has two pieces of advice:
There’s only one way to learn… it’s through action. – You’ll never excel at anything if you don’t go out and try – if you don’t put your pride on the line and give it your best shot.
“The fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself.” – worrying about situations that may or may not occur causes you to suffer unnecessarily. And if the undesirable event does happen, you suffer longer than is necessary: you suffer before the occurrence – you suffer during the occurrence – and you suffer after the occurrence.
I read a quote some time ago that says, “There are two types of situations you mustn’t worry about in this world. A) The things you can’t control, and B) the things you can control.”
If you have no control over a situation, what’s the use of worrying about it? It’s out of your control, rather spend your time minimising its potential damage and planning your comeback. And if you can control something, what’s the use of worrying about it? Control the damn thing and stop freaking out!
Success requires that you decide – that you make a commitment to take the necessary actions to achieve the outcomes you want. Some level of sacrifice and discomfort will always be inherent. Stop whining about it and get to work.
Journey v/s Destination:
“The secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world, and never forget the drops of oil on the spoon.”
Too many of us spend our lives chasing dreams that will take us many years to accomplish, in the process we forget to honour the most important aspects of our lives: health, family, relationships, etc.
This habit, according to the author, is stupid. It robs us of life’s greatest pleasures
Many people on the other hand, live reckless lives with no sense of purpose and responsibility – no vision for the future, claiming, “You only live once.”
This too is very stupid.
Why can’t we have both? Why can’t we enjoy our lives responsibly while still pursuing meaningful goals and service to humanity?
Let’s talk about it in the comments section below…
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