A young writer finds gold in the prologue to ‘The Alchemist.’
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Whenever we do something that fills us with enthusiasm, we are following our legend.
However, we don’t all have the courage to confront our own dream.
—Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
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A prologue serves as the preface to a novel. Usually, the prologue doesn’t bask in golden sunlight, since it typically serves to hint at the breathtaking quotes or the charming characters hidden inside. However, in the novel The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, I believe the prologue is just as inspirational as the book.
For a bit of background on the novel, The Alchemist was originally published in 1988, and subsequent versions included an introduction by the author. It has been translated into 56 languages and has sold at least 65 million copies. If I were to summarize the themes in the book in one word, that word would be destiny. The novel is about a young boy, Santiago, and his quest to find his destiny, his personal legend.
I first read the novel as part of a school assignment in 9th grade, but today, a few years later, as I re-read some parts of it, I realized that the prologue offers a wealth of inspiration.
It’s hard to believe that a single sentence can encompass such a major aspect of our daily lives, but this sentence does just that.
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The prologue begins with this sentence: “Whenever we do something that fills us with enthusiasm, we are following our legend. However, we don’t all have the courage to confront our own dream.”
It’s hard to believe that a single sentence can encompass such a major aspect of our daily lives, but this sentence does just that.
Don’t we all have dreams? Goals? Wishes? Desires?
Those aspirations are our legends.
But what happens to those dreams?
What happens is that life intervenes.
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Our childhood is brimming with hopes of becoming an author, or maybe traveling the world, but as we grow into adults, those hopes start slipping from our grasps, and years later, we are filled with regret.
Our childhood is brimming with hopes of becoming an author, or maybe traveling the world, but as we grow into adults, those hopes start slipping from our grasps, and years later, we are filled with regret.
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A 2013 report by Gallup found that only 13% of workers were happy with their careers. That’s a dismal number, meaning that 87% of people didn’t follow their dreams.
Why?
Well, in the prologue, Coelho outlines four obstacles that we must overcome to make our dreams come true. Each obstacle is more difficult than the previous one, but if we are able to surpass all those adversities, then finally, we achieve our legend.
The first obstacle is impossibility. What defines impossibility? Can something be impossible for one person but possible for another? The fear of things being too difficult is a hurdle for any task in life.
As Coelho writes:
First: we are told from childhood that everything we want to do is impossible.
Since we grow up with that belief, it is especially hard to ignore the fear of impossibility, but if we don’t even try something, how will we know if it is possible or not?
For me, this one was surprising, because I’d always thought of love as something that would help dreams become a reality.
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The second obstacle is love. For me, this one was surprising, because I’d always thought of love as something that would help dreams become a reality. However, Coelho says sometimes we do not pursue our goals because we are afraid of the harm it may cause to others around us. If someone really loves us though, and wishes us the absolute best in all our pursuits, then they’ll only help us on that journey.
The third obstacle?
Failure.
We fear failure immensely. We fear falling down. We fear embarrassment and defeat.
What if something doesn’t work out? How many defeats will we have to overcome? Are our dreams too ambitious?
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What if something doesn’t work out? How many defeats will we have to overcome? Are our dreams too ambitious? Those questions plague us, allowing failure to dwell deeper into our minds.
Since defeats are bound to occur, I believe it’s better to think of failure as a lesson and a teacher, rather than a dead end. Without failure, we might not appreciate the successes as much. After all, would summer be as cherished if there was no winter?
As Coelho writes:
The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and get up eight times.
The last obstacle, ironically, is realizing our dreams are achievable, with just one more push.
After years of working towards our goals, we wake up one day and realize our dream is finally within reach.
What happens then?
We forget the challenges we overcame and the lessons we learned and the hours of work we poured into transforming our dreams into realities, and we wonder whether we are worthy of the fruits of our labors.
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That’s when the last obstacle appears. We suddenly worry if we actually deserve that dream. We forget the challenges we overcame and the lessons we learned and the hours of work we poured into transforming our dreams into realities, and we wonder whether we are worthy of the fruits of our labors.
If we can overcome that final obstacle, we can finally realize and achieve our legend.
♦◊♦
I gleaned all this information from the prologue to The Alchemist, and the actual book expands on this wisdom.
If you haven’t read The Alchemist, I highly recommend it. The novel is short, but it will leave you with a lifetime’s worth of motivation and inspiration.
Photo—frau-Vogel/Flickr