Kristyn Says…

I have recently read the book The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, it was recommended to me by my uncle and I am forever grateful. This book has provided me with a whole new outlook and has moved me into a healthier mind set. I would suggest this book to anyone who has an open mind, anyone who is looking for life altering motivation or for anyone who just enjoys these types of books. Throughout the book I found myself comparing it to the book and documentary that of “The Secret” which is also an amazing book!

 The book is about a young man who has very little but is happy and content. He is a Shepherd and spends all of his time with his sheep. He is bothered by a dream he has and decides to have the dream interpreted. He is then told that there is a treasure that awaits him in the pyramids of Egypt and with a little help he decides to go there to find his treasure. Throughout the book he meets different people and gets side tracked from his dream for a short period of time. He experienced fortune as well as misfortune but never stopped learning every step of the way. He has opportunities to speak with very wise men and allows them to influence his life. In the end he decides to follow his Person Legend and he discovers his treasure.

 The book taught me varies things and I learned a lot. This is the type of book that each individual who reads it may interpret it a little different then another. Here are my personal thoughts and interpretations of what the book was saying, and included is also my opinion of what the book is insinuating.

 Another main thing I have learned is how powerful fear is. The book says “Fear of suffering is worse than fear itself” and that is true. We don’t fear fear, we fear anything negative. Some people in this world get comfortable in their life and become content with what they have. But you are never supposed to just be CONTENT! You are supposed to be happy and constantly setting and meeting goals and constantly changing. You are supposed to continue to grow every single day and move up in life to be the most successful, happiest person you can possibly be. Fear is what will prevent someone from being completely happy. We are all afraid of failing but the difference between successful people and unsuccessful people are those who do not let fear prevent them from trying. There is a quote I’ve heard many times throughout my life: Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game. A quote from the book says “We are afraid of losing what we have whether it’s our life or our possessions and property, but this fear evaporates when we understand that our life stories and the history of the world were written by the same hand.” We as people are so afraid of failing that we don’t want to give up what we consider to already be success. We fear change. People are sad to move to a different home, we are afraid to quit our job for another one, we are afraid to go back to school. We worry about all of the negative. What if it fails? What if the people at my new job don’t like me? What if this what if that… well what if it turns out to bring you more money and more happiness then you could imagine? What if it is a good decision and steers your life into a great direction. People who are afraid of change are bound to stay frozen. Yes, it is true, you will not fail if you stay in the same place. You will stay comfortable and you will remain the same as you are now, yes you will not move backwards- but you will also not move forward. Fearing change is willingly allowing yourself to stay frozen. If you don’t want to make changes to better your life then you are trapping yourself and keeping yourself frozen in your own life; trapped within your own insecurities that all originate from fear and worrying about the “what ifs”. Another quote from the book says “People are afraid to pursue their most important dreams because they feel they don’t deserve them, or that they’ll be unable to achieve them”. You are in the driver seat of your own life and you deserve every single thing you can obtain and everything you CAN achieve.

 The Alchemist taught me how important it is to continue to move forward. No matter how good anything in your life seems to be, you should always push yourself to achieve more. The universe is on your side in achieving what you want from this life and sometimes stuff looks hard or seems challenging, other times you try and try and try to remain positive and it seems everything is against you. The Alchemist says “The darkest hour of the night came just before the dawn” and, to me, that means it always gets worse before it gets better, it has to rain in order to see the rainbow. If there was no negative things in this life we would have no ability to appreciate the good. I think the main message in the book was to always follow your dreams, not only pursue your Personal Legend but allow yourself to discover it, and become the person you were meant to be. Never fear change, always aspire to achieve more. They say the grass always looks greener on the other side, and their right, it does and sometimes you go to the other side just to discover there are just as many weeds on that lawn then there was on yours but life is a learning experience. I think that life is about obtaining and absorbing every ounce of knowledge that you can, then once you have it you are to use it and then share it to those who have yet to learn it. Struggles are a part of life and they will always happen regardless of any situation, but its the joys and accomplishments that are experienced at the end of those struggles that push anyone to move forward. Everyone has heard of the saying Just Live your Life. I disagree. Don’t just live your life, don’t just coast through every day just “getting by” but instead- live every moment and milk every opportunity that you can! Experience every situation and never, EVER stop learning. Every person that you meet has a story to tell, why don’t you take a minute to listen to theirs, and then share yours?!  And if not that then at the very least- read The Alchemist and tell me what you thought of it. Why should you? Because Kristyn Says !

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