” A fable about following your dreams”
I’ve struggled to find time for reading recently and most attempts ended with several half finished books lying on my bookshelf. Blame this bad habit on ” my so called busy schedule” or “hectic lifestyle” as many call it. I could totally own this excuse and run with it (it is not my fault, I’m too busy to read), but I knew that with each passing day my mind was rusting.
Like most people, the start of a new year is an opportunity to set new goals and follow the famous ” New Year’s resolution” trend. So I followed suit and set myself a target to read a total of 24 books (a very ambitious target) this year. Now you’d assume that I’d start by finishing all the half completed books piling on my bookshelf, but I decided to start afresh and begin with The Alchemist. I’ve been longing to read it for a while now and this was an opportunity to do just that.
I had received a M500.00 (ZAR 500.00 equivalent) CNA voucher for Christmas and in pursuit of achieving my resolutions, I used it to purchase two books; The Alchemist being one of them.
I started reading it on the 2nd of January 2019 and I set myself a SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound) goal to finish it within two weeks. I knew that if I was to finish 24 books by December, I had to get going and this entailed early morning and late evening reading sessions.
4am I was up and entrenched into The Alchemist, curious to find out why a Shepherd was so eager to pursue a dream he wasn’t even sure existed. It was a shock to my system, waking up so early to read anything that was not a textbook (but it takes 21 days to create a new habit right?).
8 days into reading The Alchemist, I was done with it; yes I finished it on the 10th of January 2019. This is a book, I couldn’t put down. Completely immersed into the Shepherd’s journey and captivated by Coelho’s easy style of writing; I was enjoying the read.
Many thoughts, ideas and questions were going through my mind. At some point, I became emotional and started questioning many of my decisions. This was an interesting start to the new year, but before I give away too much; allow me to stop here.
You are probably hoping that I would share my review of The Alchemist in this blog post, but I am sure you know my blogging style by now- yes there is a part 2 coming. Tune in and subscribe to the blog for more posts and let’s unpack in part 2 of the post.
Happy Jan-u-worry Friday to you
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