let me ask you a question and be honest are you living the life you truly want to live are you on the path that you know deep down you should be on or do you feel like maybe you're not exactly living out your dream well stay right there don't move because we're about to discuss 12 key lessons from a beautiful and enlightening story about pursuing your destiny your personal legend i'm talking about the alchemist by paulo cuello the alchemist is a story about a shepherd boy from spain named santiago and his hero's journey as he
leaves his herd of sheep in spain to go on a quest for hidden treasure near the egyptian pyramids he meets many colorful characters along the way from andalusia to tangier and all the way to the egyptian pyramids he falls in love experiences hardship and success and most importantly he learns the power of discovering your own personal legend and pursuing it with all your heart the characters he meets and the experiences along the way teach him many valuable lessons about life lessons we're about to go over now let's jump into the lessons from this book lesson
one there is power in committing to your path santiago learned three things from the old king of salem melchizedek one is that when you want something all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it melchizedek refers to this process of pursuing your dream as choosing your own personal legend when you commit to your dream your path you will find ways to overcome the obstacles you encounter nothing can stop you melchizedek taught santiago another lesson lesson two don't let others choose your path for you he said in the long run what people think about shepherds and
bakers becomes more important for them than their own personal legends other people regardless of their successes or lack thereof cannot tell you what your dream is only you can discover your personal legend don't let the cynics and the critics dissuade you from achieving your dreams finally melchizedek told santiago don't believe the world's greatest lie the world's greatest lie is this that at a certain point in our lives we lose control of what's happening to us and our lives become controlled by fate own your destiny the only person who can choose your dream is you step
onto the path to your personal legend and start walking on to the next lesson which santiago learned in morocco lesson four when life knocks you down stay positive and keep moving forward when santiago was in tangier he met a young man who ultimately robbed him of all his money santiago was then faced with a choice do i view myself as a poor victim in a strange place or am i an adventurer seeking treasure in a new place two completely different ways of viewing the exact same situation thankfully our hero chose the latter you are sure
to face unforeseeable obstacles that you can't plan for at this point you'll have a choice you can view each obstacle as an opportunity to learn or as a reason to give up look for the lesson in the pain it's there but you must be willing to see it our hero learned another lesson while he was in tangier don't let yourself be fooled santiago reflected upon his gullibility and the ease with which he was robbed and thought to himself i'm like everyone else i see the world in terms of what i would like to see happen
not what actually does our biases are powerful and we are constantly searching for affirmation of what we believe be flexible and allow yourself room to grow to see what's really in front of you moving on to lesson six be bold and make decisions in reflecting on some of his recent good fortune and how the universe had guided him through seemingly random situations santiago thought making a decision was only the beginning of things 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 it's a beautiful thing decisions lead to action action leads to experience and experience leads to learning a life of indecision is a boring life make decisions try things and learn eventually one of those decisions will lead to a big success on to lesson seven embrace the now while santiago was traveling with a caravan across the desert he got to know a camel driver who told him i don't live in either my past or my future i'm interested only in the present if you can concentrate always on the present you'll
be a happy man we all know this on some level yesterday is gone and we are not guaranteed tomorrow we need to focus on the moment be present not only for yourself but for the ones you love this is the key to happiness lesson 8 don't focus on the result focus on the process santiago learned many things from the alchemist the first is this people don't find success when they seek only treasure when they seek only the result success comes from living your personal legend the journey and what's learned along the way the process is
often much more valuable than the treasure you find at the end of the journey another lesson from the alchemist is this don't let the fear of failure keep you from pursuing your dreams tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself and that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams because every second of the search is a second's encounter with god and with eternity the alchemist also told him there is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve the fear of failure big
rewards often require big risks every moment you spend pursuing your dream brings you a few steps closer to realizing that dream take risks learn from your failures and create the life you want finally santiago learned this beautiful lesson from the old alchemist lesson 10 when you make yourself better you make the world better he told santiago when something evolves everything around that thing evolves as well when we strive to become better than we are everything around us becomes better too improve yourself and you improve the world around you everything and everyone around you will benefit
from your efforts finally we learned two more lessons from santiago lesson 11 allow yourself to dream santiago thought to himself it's the possibility of having dreams come true which makes life interesting don't limit yourself according to what might seem impossible to you today from car engines to apple computers we would all be living in a much different world if some people didn't dream keep dreaming and stay passionate the final lesson is this practice gratitude santiago thought to himself when each day is the same as the next it's because people fail to recognize the good things
that happen in their lives every day that the sun rises life can get repetitive however there's beauty in every moment learning to recognize the beauty around you can give you the boost of positivity and inspiration you need to achieve your dreams well e-learners that's it for the alchemist by paulo cuello i hope you enjoyed the lessons from this beautiful and inspiring book and i'll see you next time on mentally fit
