I often say that reading The Alchemist completely elevated the way that I viewed life as a whole. The level of wisdom I gained is worth sharing. Here’s a few and I definitely recommend reading the book yourself.
The book tells a story of a young shepherd boy who goes on a quest for treasure to realize his ‘personal legend’. During this journey, he is faced with many obstacles. The recurrent theme of The Alchemist, is to pursue your dreams by following what your heart desires.
During the young boy’s journey, he learns to listen to the heart and to follow the language of omens.
With each obstacle there was a lesson to learn and with each lesson the boy learns that he must always follow his heart because it is the language of God. He realizes that he must go on with his own ‘personal legend’ no matter how difficult the journey becomes.
He learns to use his heart to overcome fear, to use his soul to never lose hope when faced with adversity and to focus on his own journey, disregarding the influences of society.
Interesting right?
Now, here are a few lessons I learnt having read this book.
1. Maktub – It Is Written
Everything that happens, happens for a reason. This is the belief that all of your actions are fate, written by God and all you have to do is follow the path that is already laid out for you. Every person you meet, every conversation you have, everything you do each day plays a role in the universe, you just don't realise how. Your entire life shapes the world.
2. Find The Extraordinary In The Ordinary- Embrace the present
Pay attention. Look at all the little things around you and notice the details. Being grateful for the small things grounds you and gets you living in the present moment away from past events that can zap the joy from your soul. Notices textures, notice smells, notice the pleasure in the little things you love and be grateful for them in the moment.
3. Fear Is The Biggest Obstacle than the obstacle it self
Your mind makes fear bigger than the actual thing that you fear which leads to procrastinating. As you do that, the fear gets bigger. If you can do the scary thing fast, the fear won't be so big, it won't have the chance to grow. Don’t give into your fears.
4. Your success has The Ripple Effect
“No matter what he does, every person on earth plays a central role in the history of the world. And normally he doesn’t know it”
When you strive to be the best version of you, everything around you becomes better too. In the same way that when 1 person yawns, another person 'catches it' and yawns too, smiles, love, and happiness can also be caught. Use yourself to spread love, joy and happiness to others around you and you'll notice a positive change in yourself and everyone around you from your family to strangers.
5. Follow What Your Heart Desires
The book states that Your heart is the language of God and no matter what obstacles or fear you face, if you follow your heart you'll always learn a lesson and come out the other side being 1 step closer to what your soul desires. You can never escape from what your heart and soul wants and needs, no matter how much you might try to distract yourself, so give in gracefully and enjoy the journey of your life.
6. Know That You Will Fail
Don't let failure stop you, just learn the lesson and move on, failure is inevitable and is progress. ("The secret of life is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.")
7. What is true will always endure
Truth will always stand strong. When you’re searching for the “right” decision, it will be the one that withstands the tests of time and the weight of scrutiny.
8. Focus on your own journey
“If someone isn’t what others want them to be, the others become angry. Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.”
There’s nothing wrong with taking advice and learning from others, but make sure it aligns with your heart’s desire.
9. Make the decision
When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he has never dreamed of when he first made the decision.
10. When you really want something, all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it. Notice the signs (i.e. Omens). The universe has its language and it's using it to communicate to you the clues and signs
Buy the book Here.
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Use your imagination and see the world in terms of what you would like to see happen, not what actually does.
References:
Fullylived.com, Tal Gur
Jeremy Divinity, Medium, 2017
The Beach House Experience, 2017
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