The Alchemist: A Fable About Following Your Dream

The Alchemist: A Fable About Following Your Dream by Paulo Coelho

This is one of the few books that I have read from cover to cover within 24 hours.
It is the story of a boy called Santiago who goes in search of treasure and risks everything along the way to follow a new path. A journey of self discovery and about following your heart's desire, as your heart knows what you really, really want.

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An Andalucian shepherd boy who one night dreams of a distant treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. And so he's off: leaving Spain to literally follow his dream. It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting, so never stop dreaming.

Along the way he meets a King who tells him that to realise one's destiny is a person's only real obligation. There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure. If you don't go to your calling, your heart will remind you for the rest of your life of what could have been! What people think about others, whether they be shepherds, bakers or kings becomes more important for them than their destinies. Most people see the world as a threatening place, and because they do, the world turns out indeed to be a threatening place. When you possess great treasures within you, and try to tell others of them, seldom are you believed.

"Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own."

The boy sets off from Spain to Egypt knowing he just has to read the omens and signs left on your path, as that will show him the way and guide him, along with his heart.

He finally meets the Alchemist that shows him the Language of the Soul of the World and teaches him how things can change to another level than what they were originally. How people are tested just before they reach their dreams to make sure they learnt along the way. Every search begins with beginners luck (the principle of favourability to whet your appetite for success) and ends with being severely tested, in the same way that the darkest hour of the night comes just before the dawn.

It is once you reach your goal that all the trials and the journey make sense. When you want something, the universe will conspire in helping you to achieve it.

"My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer," the boy confides to the alchemist one night as they look up at a moonless night.

"Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself," the alchemist replies. "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."

Santiago also meets a girl in the desert, having left one in Spain in search of his dreams and learns that when we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.

Love is the pure language of the world...A language without words…the one true language of the universe. It requires no explanation, just as the universe needs none as it travels through endless time. Love is the force that transforms and improves the soul of the world. Without love, dreams would have no meaning.

"I don't live in my past or my future. I'm interested in only the present. If you can concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy person. Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we're living right now."

If you have a dream and a decision to make, it is right for you and the time to follow it is now! Enjoy the adventure and maybe our paths will cross on this glorious life that we have chosen to live...