Tuesday, January 11, 2011

"There are four obstacles. First: we are told from childhood onward that everything we want to do is impossible.... If we have the courage to disinter dream, we are then faced by the second obstacle: love. We know what we want to do, but are afraid of hurting those around us by abandoning everything in order to pursue our dream.... We do not realize that those who genuinely wish us well want us to be happy and are prepared to accompany us on that journey. Once we have accepted that love is a stimulus, we come up against the third obstacle: fear of the defeats we will meet on the path... we cannot fall back on the old excuse: 'Oh, well, I didn't really want it anyway.' We do want it and know that we have staked everything on it.... So why suffer? Because, once we have overcome the defeats we are filled by a greater sense of euphoria and CONFIDENCE. Then comes the fourth obstacle: the fear of realizing the dream for which we fought all our lives.... This is the most dangerous of the obstacles because it has a kind of saintly aura about it: renouncing joy and conquest."-- Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

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