The Alchemist is one of those books that makes me want to tell everyone in the world how much I love it, even though it hardly needs any more publicity and if anything is dangerously over-hyped. One thing I will refrain from doing is writing a long blog post about how life-changing and amazing it is... there are plenty of those already and I'm sure you can make up your own minds.I am writing about it today because I am thinking about fear, and one thing The Alchemist does exceptionally well is categorise (and shoot down) fear. Fear of failure, fear that your dreams will not live up to your expectations, fear that there will be nothing left to dream of if you succeed in your plans, fear that you don't deserve the thing want, etc. Ever since I've read that book I have been able to map my fears to the ones from its story as they've cropped up in my life. The little voice in my head says things like "you're being just like that guy who didn't want to go to Mecca now." Fear is often hard to recognise, and I'll always be grateful to The Alchemist for making it a little easier for me.
This is the other thing I think about fear; it is important. Yes, it can feel horrible and it can be prohibitive and there will be many many times in all of our lives when we wish we didn't have to deal with it or when it gets the better of us and life takes a negative turn as a result. But fear is important because it shows us that we care, and achievement has no real meaning without it. The things the world values are not always the things you value. The things that scare you are the things you truly value, and nothing is as satisfying as when you achieve / survive / find those.
I know what the boy in the book meant when he said "my heart is afraid that it will have to suffer." But today, thinking about all my current fears - the things I'm scared to lose and the things I'm scared I will or won't accomplish - I feel grateful for all the things I have to value.
Today someone told me that I was silly for being scared - scared that I wasn't good enough....but you are right - fear is important.. in theory, it makes perfect sense to me - but today I just don't feel it!
ReplyDeleteIt's important and also REALLY natural. We all fear that we aren't good enough. That's why books like The Alchemist are so popular all over the world. I don't believe all this new age stuff about how we have to be happy and confident all the time... that isn't human. It isn't living.
ReplyDeleteIf you're worried that you're not good enough for something, I think that shows that you take that thing seriously and that you care about it. In a way that already makes you good enough, because anyone (within reason) can learn or practise particular skills to get to some required standard, but your attitude - whether you care about being good enough - that is something someone either has or doesn't have. You have it, and that's a HUGE start. You'll work out the rest.