Dr. Parul Sharda, Associate Professor, IMIRC -  “If you don’t like to read, you haven’t found the right book.”– J.K. Rowling, I read this quote while I was surfing the internet a few days back,and then I came across an“Adventurous Fiction Novel “The Alchemist”, by Paulo Coelho and a self-help book “IKIGAI: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life by Héctor García and Francesc Miralles are a magical treasure of life lessons, one must read and explore!

As I started reading these books, each line written has magic within, which speaks about the ultimate reality hidden somewhere deep in all of our heart. The essence of this fabulous creation is to follow your dreams and that your journey is far more important than your destination.

It also silently narrates the contrast between the lives of people who realise and fulfil their purpose with those who allow themselves to be side-tracked and don’t achieve their goals.

I must say that the crux of these books is all about “Finding the Purpose of Life”. Some key points that I have picked up from the Alchemist read are depicted in this article, “Everyone on the earth has a treasure that awaits him, the only necessity dares to explore and achieve it.” This line says it all about being courageous because the fear of failure is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve.

Another quote that captivated my heart is “The simplest things in life are the most extraordinary”. We must not strive to make ourselves extraordinary while competing with others, just learn the greatest lessons from the world’s best teacher i.e. Life and you will be amazed to see that miracles start happening in your life. Every one of us believes in luck and that made us dependent and make us wait for the right circumstances so that we can test our luck but the thing that I have learnt from The Alchemist is “Follow the Omens: God has prepared a path for everyone to follow, just read the omens to demystify the treasure of Life”. Work hard to find the better you, it has been seen that people give up just one step before success. Keep trying, perseverance is the key because the secret of life, is to fall seven times and to get up eight. Apply the learnings of the past to make your present worth enjoying and lively, which will ultimately prepare you to craft your beautiful future.

And the best one that I found in this treasure of learning is “When you want something, the whole universe conspires in helping you achieve it”. And it is absolutely worth repeating as many times because what you want must be spoken so many times that you must not forget the target of your life. The closer one gets to realising his destiny, the more that destiny becomes his true reason for being, which has also been written in the book “IKIGAI: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life by Héctor García and Francesc Miralles. 

Dr. Parul Sharda, the Author of this article, is the Associate Professor and HOD (Management), Indore Management Institute & Research Centre.

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