Have You Learned The Alchemist Secret to Realizing your Dreams?

The Alchemist is one of those books that I bought after repeatedly hearing it was a must read—and then it sat unread for a couple years in the must-read pile on my bookshelf with about a dozen other must-read books.  

In March, I took it and most of the pile on vacation with me, figuring if they were the only books I had with me, I’d finally check them off my list. 

In one of life’s coincidences that I suspect isn’t a coincidence at all, March turned out to be exactly the right time for me to read it. 

The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho is what I term non-fiction disguised as fiction—a fable-like tale about the four obstacles that block our courage, holding us back from realizing our dreams.  

The first obstacle is being told repeatedly our dream is impossible—and believing it.  The second obstacle might surprise you--it’s love. The idea is that we put our loved ones first and often forfeit our dream rather than neglect them to singularly pursue it. The next two obstacles are both about fear. Third is the understandable fear of failing and Fourth—like love it might surprise you—the fear of realizing our dream—which is often due to guilt or insecurity. 

For me, the timing for reading The Alchemist was so perfect because it coincided with realizing my dream of publishing my first novel, Peace by Piece. You might see publishing as the end of the journey, but to me it presented a new set of obstacles—the dreaded learning curve to social network and market. Here’s what my obstacles sounded like in real life.

·         I'm not a techie, I can't do this computer mumbo-jumbo online marketing stuff  (First obstacle)

·         Even if I could learn to social network and market, it will be so time consuming, I’ll never have time with Jim (Second obstacle)

·         What if I spend all that time social networking and marketing and still no one buys my book? (Third obstacle)

·         What if I’m successful and Oprah, or Ellen, or Katie discover Peace by Piece and tell women to read it? How would my life have to change? 

The Alchemist’s secret is in understanding that in spite of being worthy of our dreams, we all hit obstacles and fall down—and that reaching your dreams is about BELIEVING you will always get up one more time than the number of times you fall. 

Do you believe you are worthy of your dreams? And, what will you do to pick yourself up the next time you fall down?

 

How to Stop Saying Someday and Attain Your Goals Now

It is that time of year when we look back, count up victories, suck up disappointments, and gaze forward with renewed resolve that this is the year to finally achieve that goal.  

This time last year as my 60^th birthday loomed, I tried to fathom how an age that sounded so old could possibly apply to me. Still in denial a year later, I continue to think of myself as 40-something—just with more experience than other people “my age.”

Turns out, my 60^th birthday opened a domino of new doors. Door number one was eligibility for early retirement, leading to a new part-time job, giving me more time for writing, allowing me to realize a goal I have chased for many years—publishing my novel, Peace by Piece. 

Sure working less helped, but it took more than just the gift of newfound time. Here are some of the deliberate steps that put my long time goal within reach.  

Step 1: Be specific. To get where you want to go, be specific about your destination.  

From the time I was twenty-something, I fantasized about writing a book. Finally, 15 years ago, I joined a creative writing group.  When asked at the first meeting, why I was there, I announced, “I want to write a book.” My goal was specific from the start.

Step 2: Chunk it down. To achieve a goal, especially a lofty goal, it helps to break it down into the concrete nuts and bolts that will get it done.  

I learned to write creatively and wrote a novel one action at a time: regularly attending writing workshops, seeking critiques, reading books on the craft of writing, earning an MFA, editing and rewriting draft after draft.   

Step 3 – Have a plan. Research says planning doubles your chance to attain your goal. Good intentions account for 20-30% of goal attainment. That means 70-80% of the time intentions do not do it! You need a plan.

I will write every week is an intention not a plan. My plan included specific commitments: to write at least five hours every Saturday, two hours on Sunday, and always have a draft new chapter ready for critique at my weekly writing group.

Step 4 – Include the power of If/Then in your plan. If/then planning means deciding in advance what you’ll do when something derails your plan.  

Life is unpredictable. Although I considered my writing time sacred and non-negotiable, stuff happened. My if/then plan included things like, if we have company for the weekend, then, I will get up an hour early all week to write in the early morning.

Without my if/then plan, I might have felt resentful or powerless about missing my writing time.

Word by word, sentence by sentence, chapter by chapter, you might say Piece by Peace (pun intended) these steps helped me write an entire book. 

How about you? What’s your life goal? And what will you do to make 2013 the year you hold your dream in your hands?