The Alchemist notes 12/29/2013 11:50:00 AM

To realize one's destiny is a persons only real obligation.

Whats the worlds greatest lie? Its this: that at a certain point in our
lives, we lose control of whats happening to us, and our lives become
controlled by fate. Thats the worlds greatest lie.
He never realized that people are capable, at any time in their lives, of
doing what they dream of.
He had to choose between something he had become accustomed to and
something he wanted to have.
And when each day is the same as the next, it's because people fail to
recognize the good things that happen in their lives everyday that the sun
rises.
Its the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life
interesting.
Its the simple things in life that are the most extraordinary; only wise
men are able to understand them.
If you start out by promising what you don't even have yet, you'll lose
your desire to work toward getting it.
Everything in life has its price.
When you really want something, the universe always conspires in your
favor.
He wept because God was unfair, and because this was the way God
repaid those who believed in their dreams.
Im like everyone else-I see the world in terms of what I would like to
see happen, not what actually does.
He realized that he that he had to choose between thinking of himself as
the poor victim of a thief or as an adventurer in quest of his treasure.
Im an adventurer, looking for treasure, he said to himself.
He no longer had to seek out food and water for the sheep; he could go
in search of his treasure, instead. He had not a cent in his pocket but he
had faith. He had decided the night before, that he would be as much an
adventurer as the ones he had admired in books.
All things are one.
There was a moment of silence so profound that it seemed the city was
asleep. No sound from the bazars, no arguments among the merchants,
no men climbing to the towers to chant. No hope, no adventure, no old
kings or Personal Legends, no treasure, and no Pyramids. It was as if the
world had fallen silent because the boys soul had. He sat there, staring
blankly through the door of the caf, wishing he had died, and that
everything would end forever at that moment.
You must always know what it is that you want.
I have been told that beauty is the great seducer of men.
He still had some doubts about the decision he had made. But he was
able to understand one thing: making a decision was only the beginning
of things. When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a
strong current that will carry him to places he had never dreamed of
when he first made the decision.
Everything in life is an omen.
The closer one gets to realizing his Personal Legend, the more that
Personal Legend becomes his true reason for being.
We are afraid of losing what we have, whether its our life or our
possessions and property. But this fear evaporates when we understand
that our life stories and the history of the world were written by the same
hand.
Meanwhile, the boy thought about his treasure. The closer he got to the
realization if his dream, the more difficult things became. It seemed as if
what the old king had called beginners luck were no longer functioning.
In his pursuit of the dream, he was being constantly subjected to tests of
his persistence and courage. So he could not be hasty, nor impatient. If
he pushed forward impulsively, he would fail to see the signs and omens
left by God along his path.
Dont be impatient, he repeated to himself. Eat when its time to eat.
And move along when its time to move along.
I had to test your courage, the stranger said. Courage is the quality
most essential to understanding the language of the world.You must not
let up, even after having come so far,You must love the desert, but
never trust it completely. Because the desert tests all men: it challenges
every step, and kills those who become distracted.
When a person really desires something, all the universe conspires to
help that person to realize his dream.
Its not what enters mens mouths thats evil, its what comes out of their
mouths that is.
Remember that wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure.
Youve got to find the treasure, so that everything you have learned along
the way can make sense.
My heart is a traitor, it doesnt want me to go on. That makes sense,
naturally its afraid that, in pursuing your dream, you might lose
everything youve won. Well, then, why should I listen to my heart?
Because you will never again be able to keep it quiet. Even if you
pretend not to have heard what it tells you, it will always be there inside
you, repeating to you what youre thinking about life and about the
world.
Before a dream is realized, the Soul of the World tests everything that
was learned along the way. It does this not because it is evil, but so that
we can, in addition to realizing our dreams, master the lessons weve
learned as weve moved toward that dream. Thats the point at which
most people give up.
Every search begins with beginners luck. And every search ends with the
victors being severely tested.
When you posses great treasures within you, and try to tell others of
them, seldom are you believed.
If a person is living out his Personal Legend, he knows everything he
needs to know. There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to
achieve: the fear of failure.
12/29/2013 11:50:00 AM
5 things considered by happy people about their life purpose
1. Who they were
2. What they did
3. Who they did it for
4. What those people wanted or needed
5. What they got out of it or change as a result

1. Who you are
2. What you do
3. Who you do it for
4. What those people want and need
5. How they change as a result

Being brilliant everyday-factors:
a. Performance/results
b. Behaviour/What you do
c. Think
d. Feel
e. Emotion
f. Physiology

Life, my child, has many barriers you must cross.
Most of the time, you will be warned.
But everyone stumbles once in their lifetime on an invisible barrier.
Then, my son,
you stand up and move on
and you will see a heavenly blue between the darkest clouds
and flowers blooming in their full beauty.

Focus, take responsibility, determine goals, and reach them.

If you want to succeed then you will. But you have to do it yourself.

The science of change

6 sources of influence: changing bad habits

MOTIVATION ABILITY
PERSONAL 1-do I want to do it 2-Can I do it
SOCIAL 3-social(cheer) 4-coach
STRUCTURAL(enviro) 5-reward 6-space

1. Can you pass the commitment test?
2. What emotional, interpersonal, mental and physical skills do you need to
make your vital behaviors easier?
3. Do you have friends who help or accomplices who hinder?
4. Coach; professional advice.
5. Invert the economy-make the helpful things rewarding and the hindering
things painful.
6. Control your space-make good behavior easier and bad behavior harder.

A plan is not a plan-until it specifies how you will deal with setbacks

I can only control my behavior by taking control of the things that control
me:
1. Identify your crucial moments
2. Create your vital behaviors
3. Engage all 6 sources of influence
4. Turn bad days into good data


12/29/2013 11:50:00 AM
(HC) And then I perceived how foolish I had been in consenting to take my
turn with you in praising love, and saying that I too was an expert on love,
when I really had no conception how anything whatever ought to be praised.
For in my simplicity I imagined that the substance of praise should be truth,
and that this being presupposed, the speaker was to choose the best topics
and set them forth in the best manner. And I felt quite proud, thinking that I
knew the true nature of all praise, and should speak well. Whereas I now see
that, on the contrary, in order to pay a goodly tribute of praise to anything,
you must attribute to it every species of greatness and glory, without regard
to truth or falsehoodthat doesn't matter;
(HC) It looks as if the original proposal was not that
each of us should really praise Love, but only that we
should appear to praise him. And so, I suggest, you attribute to Love every
imaginable form of praise which can be gathered anywhere; and you say
that 'he is all this', and 'the cause of all that', making him appear a paragon
of beauty and excellence to those who know him not, for you cannot impose
upon those who know him. And a noble and solemn hymn of praise have you
rehearsed. But as I misunderstood the nature of this praise when I said that
I would take my turn, I must beg to be absolved from the promise which I
made in ignorance; it was (as Euripides would say)
1
a promise of the lips
and not of the mind. Farewell then to such a strain, for I do not praise in
that way; no, indeed, I cannot. But if you like to hear the truth about love, I
am ready to speak in my own manner, though I will not make myself
ridiculous by entering into any rivalry with you. Say then, Phaedrus, whether
you would like to have the truth about love, spoken in any words and in any
order which may happen to come into my mind at the time. Will that be
agreeable to you?
(HC) Aristodemus said that Phaedrus and the
company bid him speak in any manner which he
thought best.
(198e-199b) p 530
(199b-199c) p 530
(199c-199c) p 530
(HC) Then, he added, let me have your permission first to ask Agathon a
few questions, in order that I may take what he accepts as the premisses of
my discourse.
(HC) I grant the permission, said Phaedrus: put your questions.
(HC) Socrates then proceeded as follows:
(HC) In your oration, my dear Agathon, I think that
you were certainly right in proposing to speak of the
nature of Love first and afterwards of his worksthat is a way of beginning
which I very much approve. And as you have set forth his nature with such
stately eloquence, may I ask you further, Whether Love is by his nature the
love of something or of nothing? And here I must explain myself: I do not
want you to say that Love is the love of a father or the love of a mother
that would be ridiculous; but to answer as you would, if I asked, Is a father
a father of something? to which you would find no difficulty in replying, of a
son or daughter: and the answer would be right.
(HC) Very true, said Agathon.
(HC) And you would say the same of a mother?
(HC) He assented.
(HC) Yet let me ask you one more question in order
to illustrate my meaning: Is not a brother to be
regarded essentially as a brother of something?
(HC) Certainly, he replied.
(HC) That is, of a brother or sister?
(HC) Yes, he said.
(HC) And now, said Socrates, I will ask about
Love:Is Love of something or of nothing?
(HC) Of something, surely, he replied.
(HC) Keep in mind what this is, and tell me what I
want to knowwhether Love desires that of which love is.
(HC) Yes, surely.
(HC) And does he possess, or does he not possess, that which he loves and
desires?
(HC) Probably not, I should say.
(HC) Nay, replied Socrates, I would have you
consider whether 'necessarily' is not rather the word.
The inference that he who desires something is lacking in that thing, and
(199c-199d) p 530
(199d-199d) p 531
(199d-199e) p 531
(199e-199e) p 531
(199e-200a) p 531
(200a-200a) p 531
(200a-200b) p 531
that he who does not desire a thing is not in lack of it, is in my judgement,
Agathon, absolutely and necessarily true. What do you think?
(HC) I agree with you, said Agathon.
(HC) Very good. Would he who is great, desire to be
great, or he who is strong, desire to be strong?
(HC) That would be inconsistent with our previous admissions.
(HC) True. For he who has those qualities cannot be lacking in them?
(HC) Very true.
(HC) Suppose that a man being strong desired to be
strong, or being swift desired to be swift, or being
healthy desired to be healthy,since in that case he might be thought to
desire something which he already has or is, I refer to the point in order that
we may not be led astrayyou will see on reflection that the possessors of
these qualities must have their respective advantages at the time, whether
they choose or not; and who can desire that which he has? Therefore, when
a person says, I am well and wish to be well, or I am rich and wish to be
rich, and I desire to have exactly what I haveto him we shall reply: 'You,
my friend, having wealth and health and strength, want to have the
continuance of them; for at this moment, whether you choose or no, you
have them. And when you say, I desire that which I have and nothing else,
is not your meaning that you want to have in the future what you have at
present?' He must agree with usmust he not?
(HC) He must, replied Agathon.
(HC) Then, said Socrates, he desires that what he
has at present may be preserved to him in the future,
which is equivalent to saying that he desires something which is non-
existent to him, and which as yet he has not got?
(HC) Very true, he said.
(HC) Then he and everyone who desires, desires that
which he has not already, and which is future and not present, and which he
has not, and is not, and which he lacks;these are the sort of things which
love and desire seek?
(HC) Very true, he said.
(200b-200b) p 531
(200b-200d) p 531
(200d-200d) p 532
(200d-200e) p 532
(200e-200e) p 532
(200e-201a) p 532
(HC) Then now, said Socrates, let us recapitulate the argument. First, is
not love of something, and of something too which is wanting to a man?
(HC) Yes, he replied.
(HC) Remember further what you said in your
speech, or if you like I will remind you: you said that the love of the
beautiful set in order the empire of the gods, for that of deformed things
there is no lovedid you not say something of that kind?
(HC) Yes, said Agathon.
(HC) Yes, my friend, and the remark was a just one. And if this is true, love
is the love of beauty and not of deformity?
(HC) He assented.
(HC) And the admission has been already made that
love is of something which one lacks and has not?
(HC) True, he said.
(HC) Then Love lacks and has not beauty?
(HC) Certainly, he replied.
(HC) And would you call that beautiful which lacks beauty and does not
possess it in any way?
(HC) Certainly not.
(HC) Then would you still say that Love is beautiful?
(HC) Agathon replied: I fear that I said what I did
without understanding.
(HC) Indeed, you made a very good speech, Agathon, replied Socrates; but
there is yet one small question which I would fain ask:Is not the good also
the beautiful?
(HC) Yes.
(HC) Then in lacking the beautiful, love lacks also the good?
(HC) I cannot refute you, Socrates, said Agathon:Be it as you say.
(HC) Say rather, beloved Agathon, that you cannot
refute the truth; for Socrates is easily refuted.
(HC) And now, taking my leave of you, I will
rehearse a tale of love which I heard from Diotima of
Mantinea,
1
a woman wise in this and many other kinds of knowledge, who
in the days of old, when the Athenians offered sacrifice before the coming of
the plague, delayed the disease ten years. She was my instructress in the
art of love, and I shall try to repeat to you what she said to me, beginning
(201a-201a) p 532
(201a-201b) p 532
(201b-201b) p 533
(201b-201c) p 533
(201c-201c) p 533
(201c-201d) p 533
(201d-201e) p 533
with the propositions on which Agathon and I are agreed; I will do the best I
can do without any help.
2
As you, Agathon, suggested,
3
it is proper to
speak first of the being and nature of Love, and then of his works. (I think it
will be easiest for me if in recounting my conversation with the wise woman
I follow its actual course of question and answer.) First I said to her in nearly
the same words which he used to me, that Love was a mighty god, and
likewise fair; and she proved to me, as I proved to him, that by my own
showing Love was neither fair nor good.


(201e-202a) p 533