Sunday 11 April 2010

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

The Alchemist- by Paulo Coelho

This book recommended by a friend claiming to be life changing for many people. After hearing that, I decided to see it for myself.

The novel is about Santiago, a guy who has a dream and courage to listen to his heart. He travels across different lands for self exploration and in search for treasure of his life. Being told by his father when he decided to go, “Travel the world until you see our castle is the greatest, and our women the most beautiful”. But his dream to explore the world inspires him to travel across; in his journey he sees the greatness of the world and meets different people like kings and alchemist. But by the end of his journey he realises that treasure lies where your heart belongs. And the real treasure of life is the journey itself, the wisdom he acquired and the discoveries he made.

The thing that has inspired me the most is optimism, the truth that “when you want something, all the universe conspires to help you achieve it”. Although it would not make sense to many pragmatic people but I believe in omens. So, it is important to believe and listen to your heart. Before reading this novel I always have this fear of growing old without achieving my treasure. But the author said, most people are seeking the treasure of their destiny, without actually to live out their destiny.

This of course would not mean procrastinating things in life, like this is my second post since January but to live happily in present. So remember, “If good things are coming, they will be a pleasant surprise. But, if bad things are and you know in advance, you will suffer greatly before they even occur”.

I would recommend you to read this book!!!

Thursday 7 January 2010

Hello People!

When I thought of blogging first question that cropped up in my mind was “What shall I blog about?” But one thing is clear; I am fascinated by the idea of blogging. But this was not enough to involve myself in the activity. Although, I have never considered myself as a good reader but this time I had no choice. So yeah, I started reading other people’s blog to get a gist of it and writing my first blog post. As you know this is my very first blog post, I will appreciate if you can put your comments or perhaps give some ideas.

This video updated by some random guy on social networking website has really made an impression on me and I kind of started relating things happened in my life with the three stories told by the speaker in the video. This was convocation speech delivered by CEO and Founder of Apple, Steven Jobs, many of you might have watched this video. If not, I think you should get this opportunity to at least know about it. This blog is just inspired by three stories which I reckon are quite interesting.

1. 1. Connecting the Dots

One question you need to ask yourself; Do you believe in what you are doing? If answer is no you certainly need to think about it. It is important to keep faith in whatever you are doing in life as everything you do today will connect tomorrow. One has to believe in something whether it is luck, destiny, god whatever because this is the only way that gives you confidence to follow your heart. When you listen to your heart you are more likely to achieve what you desire from life.

2. 2. Love and Loss

Do you love what you do? Sometimes life hits you hard but one should never lose faith. If you love your work no matter how hard it is you will achieve success sooner or later. Our work fills a crucial part of life and the only way to be completely satisfied is to love what you do. So, it is imperative to find and do what you love. If you haven’t find it yet, keep looking and don’t settle.

3. 3. Death

There is a quote, “If you live each day as if it were you last, you would certainly be right someday”. So look in the mirror and ask yourself if today is the last day of my life is that what I want to do, what I am going to do today. If the answer is no for many days, you need to change something. Because if you know you are going to die soon, you have all reasons to follow your heart. And, again as said before if you follow heart you are more likely to be successful in life.

I hope you enjoyed reading it!!