The first week in the month of October is Mental Health awareness week and I was going through a couple idea of what content to create and whilst pondering on that, I decided to review one mental health Book each day for the whole first week of October. 

I will be keeping these lessons short and concise so you can get meaningful insights about each book and why they can have a tremendous impact on your health. 

I promise to avoid any spoilers if I can help it but other than that, let’s get into the first book. 

Summary of ‘The Alchemist’

A brief summary of the Alchemist details the journey of a boy on his way to find his ‘treasure’, although he never set out to find the alchemist, he ended up crossing paths with him. The alchemist acts as his guiding force for the greater part of his journey. But you would

find out whether or not he actually did find his treasure and every obstacle he overcame on the way. 

Lessons to learn from ‘The Alchemist’. 

• On the journey to achieve your life purpose there will be helpers: 

Many have this preconceived notion that fulfilling your goal or vision is a lonely one with only thriving to make it at the top but this is but a fraction of a misguided truth. 

While the world and all that is around you would not always applaud you while you embrak on this journey, they will come to your aid when you really need it. 

A phrase from the book that was reiterated numerous times which I will paraphrase is, 

‘When a man sets out to achieve his life purpose, all the forces of the world come together to aid him.’ 

This is often the truth, many times blinded by logic and reasoning we fail to see the role luck plays in our success story because too often we want to attribute every achievement to our careful planning or strategic planning. 

But remember that there is a thin line between luck and risk and there is far too much outside your control to believe that every success is attributed to your own doing.

The shepherd boy had the king of Salem, the alchemist and his master at the crystal shop to guide him. 

• When you tell the world of the treasures you posses, they seldom believe: 

In the later pages of the book, there’s a scene where the alchemist and the boy were journeying through the desert and came across a group of men who wanted to rob them. 

The men asked for what they had to offer, and the alchemist brought out the instruments in which he used to turn anything into gold and the elixir of life and presented it to the soldiers explaining what the items were and what they could do. (And in fact it could turn anything into gold and the elixir could preserve life). The soldiers instead laughed them off thinking they were delirious and left them alone.

This goes to show that even when you do possess great potential and you explain that to people, they laugh it off not because you don’t have great potential but because they choose not to see beyond their present circumstances. 

The soldiers had the instruments that could turn anything into gold and yet they walked away from it because their minds couldn’t comprehend that such would even exist. 

• Chasing your destiny is never as easy as it seems:

As humans we are so obsessed with planning and mapping out every single step despite knowing that life doesn’t follow that order. But at least we must plan because it gives us some certainty in this uncertain world. 

When the boy had confirmation of his treasure being out there, he immediately sold his sheep and bought a ticket to Egypt to seek his treasure with the mindset of returning back in a few days to live out his life as a shepherd. 

However, on arriving Egypt he was robbed and then spent the next couple of months working at a crystal store which he alongside the owner grew to a substantial size. He was surprised that he had soon forgotten his conviction to see his treasure and go back home.. now time has passed and he hadn’t even began the process of getting close to finding his treasure. 

We tend to overestimate what we can achieve in a year and underestimate what you can do in a decade or two. And we haven’t had that long to even know what we can or cannot do.

It’s okay if by 6 months you haven’t reached those goals you set, you don’t have to give up because of that. It’s fine if by 25, you aren’t the CEO of a multi million dollar company, that doesn’t mean you can’t achieve it. You still have time so don’t mess it up. 

Plans help guide us but ultimately it’s out of our control how certain events will turn you. You can find opportunities in places you would have never thought to look. 

I hope you give this book a read.