PP 091: The Alchemist: 4 Secret Ingredients for Pursuing Your Personal Legend
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The Scotty Russell Special Summary of The Alchemist
First off, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho is by far my favorite book and has massively impacted my creative side quest.
After reading it with my ears for the millionth time, I felt compelled to give you the Scotty Russell Special Summary.
To start off, there's a young boy named Santiago who loves to travel and desires to be in control of his life. He decides to become a shepherd despite his father's wishes for him to become a priest.
One day, he dreams of a buried treasure in Egypt by the pyramids. As he tries to decipher what this dream means, he makes acquaintances with an old king. The king states that this dream of treasure was part of his personal legend.
Santiago spends years pursuing his treasure and personal legend. He deals with waves of adversity—as it seems there is a force trying to deter him from finding the treasure as he gets closer to his goal.
Eventually, Santiago not only reaches the treasure, but he also realizes how much he's grown on the journey. Overall, it wasn't solely about finding the treasure, it was about the transformation along the way.
While this book is fiction, the author summarizes what I feel is a blend of the hero's journey, Law of Attraction, and the overall pursuit of your dreams.
The Alchemist parallels the grit and tenacity we must conjure within ourselves to seek out our creative potential. Furthermore, the story informs us of the adversity and unforeseeable forces we will deal with along the way.
The following are the four main ingredients for the secret sauce of pursuing your own personal legend. Let's set out on a journey to uncover that buried treasure within you.
The Alchemist: 4 Secret Ingredients for Pursuing Your Personal Legend
What's a Personal Legend?
Before I dish up the first ingredient, I think we need to answer what is a personal legend? Later on, I will explain what I believe is my personal legend during this phase of my life.
Essentially, a personal legend is one's destiny. It's identifying your purpose and having the desire to become the greatest version of yourself.
Pretty simple, right?
Ingredient #1: Don't Believe the World's Greatest Lie
During the old king's explanation of what a personal legend is, he insists that Santiago not believe in "The World's Greatest Lie."
The old king says this:
"At a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what's happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That's the world's greatest lie.”
This means that we believe the lie that we have the inability to choose and be in control of our personal legends.
Sadly, many people operate with the mindset that they can never catch a break and that the world is conspiring against them. They passively exist and don't allow themselves to pursue their dreams.
It's easy to see the world as a threatening place. The more you view it this way, the more the world will mimic your beliefs as your thoughts attract your reality.
We are afraid to let ourselves dream, which restricts us from discovering the path we're supposed to find. Many of us are afraid of becoming one massive disappointing failure.
Instead of taking control of the wheel, we choose to settle and become the passenger in our own vehicle.
Truth is, the only thing holding you back is you. Any obstacle or hurdle you face along the way is just another stepping stone to uncovering your personal legend and the treasure within you.
There's a path laid out for you, but you have to know what you want and pursue it.
Ingredient #2: Know What You Want
What do you want in life?
Can you visualize yourself achieving it?
It's hard to take the necessary steps to pursue your personal legend if you don't have a clue about what you want.
One of the most powerful quotes from the book is, "When a person really desires something, all the universe conspires to help that person to realize his or her dream."
This always puts me in check and makes me ask myself, "How badly do I want it?"
If I 'kind of' want it, I'm going to 'kind of' see some results.
I used to think the Law of Attraction was a crock of shit. Yet, books like The Secret, E-Squared by Pam Grout, and Think & Grow Rich have shown me the power in visualization, positive affirmation, and having laser focus. By equipping these things in my mindset, I can make shit happen.
I want to challenge you now: what is it you truly want or desire to achieve in life?
Write it down and place it where you can see it each day. Speak it out loud to yourself every morning and evening. Make a game plan on how you can attain it and chase it down like an absolute savage.
You will face adversity along the way, but that's all a part of the game. Once you know what you want, it's time to watch for the omens and trust yourself to follow them.
Ingredient #3: Follow the Omens
Now you're in control of the wheel, and you have a destination in mind. In order to get there, you have to pay attention to the signposts of life. (Keep in mind, there's no Google Maps or GPS device in this metaphor.)
When pursuing your personal legend, be aware and follow the omens along the way. They are guiding you to the treasure.
Omens will eventually abandon you the more you ignore them—and especially when you refuse to pursue your personal legend.
Early on in the book, the old king informs Santiago about the omens he'll encounter on his adventure. As he follows the omens, they lead him to befriend the right people who help provide him with food, shelter, and money along the way.
Creative Career Omens
In terms of your creative career, you might be missing so many everyday omens.
Omens can operate in terms of engagement, analytics, repetitive questions, milestones, opportunities, recognition, etc.
Here are some examples you may notice:
Say you're putting out a specific style of work you enjoy and are good at cranking out. The engagement slowly starts building behind it. To me, this is an omen that you should pour more gasoline on the fire and do more of what works. You have no idea where it could lead.
Imagine you constantly have people asking you the same patterns of questions like:
What pen or program are you using?
What books do you read the most?
How do you approach pricing a mural and what supplies do you use?
How do you build an audience?
These are some of the questions I get asked all the time. Instead of answering them over and over, I recognized the pattern and made resources for them. This allows me to save me time, provide value, and potentially monetize it in the future.
Getting Resourceful (Literally)
You can build a resource page like I have at Perspective-Collective.com/Resources that showcases every tool I use, every book I recommend, and other assets to I've used to elevate my own game. My goal is to provide a one-stop source for folks to reference that also is filled with Amazon Affiliate links. I provide you value while providing an opportunity to monetize my time.
Often I get asked about the programs, brushes, or design kits I use. I'll then build resource files for The Perspective-Collective Facebook community, another resource I can direct people. Again, it saves me time and provides value.
Finally, I continue to get the same questions pertaining to selling products, doing freelance, sharing your work and overcoming comparison.
From here, I'll source the most common questions and build episodes and content addressing them, or I'll seek out guests that are more qualified to speak on the subject. I can then redirect people to those resources, which again saves time and provides value.
As creatives, we have to train ourselves to look out for these omens and act on them.
Ingredient #4: Make a Choice
Later in the book, Santiago crosses paths with The Alchemist. During their conversation, the Alchemist delivers a heater:
[perfectpullquote align="left" bordertop="false" cite="" link="" color="" class="" size=""]"There is only one way to learn. It's through action. Everything you need to know you have learned through your journey."[/perfectpullquote]
Santiago's journey has always been based on the choices he's made—from choosing to become a shepherd to taking risks that could mean death.
Above all, he always took matters into his own hands. Even though putting the decision in someone else's hands is easier, it always comes with a cost.
Think about your creative career—it's filled with choices and dilemmas you must face daily:
Are you working on your craft each day and staying consistent in sharing your work?
Do you get up early or stay up late to meet a deadline?
When you fail at a task, do you wave the white flag, or do you use it as a lesson learned?
You always have a choice, especially in responding to adversity.
Beauty in the Struggle
Life threw catastrophic curveballs at Santiago during his journey. He was robbed and faced the threat of death on multiple occasions. Each time, he could've given up and gone back to tending sheep.
However, he CHOSE to see chasing his personal legend as an adventure. He KNEW that each hiccup was a part of a resistance he had to overcome to find his treasure.
Chasing down your dream isn't going to be a cake walk. If it was easy, everyone would be happy millionaires, and there'd be no struggle.
There's beauty in the struggle—it's the shit we overcome that leads to the sunshine, like back in episode 58.
To make things happen in life, you have to make a choice.
Take ownership and respond accordingly. Try not to dwell on your decision and move forward; there are plenty of more choices you'll need to make on your path.
The Universe Wants You to Win
My Personal Legend
When I read this book for the millionth time, it really caused me to reflect on my own personal legend.
Pardon the cheese and lack of originality, but I believe my overall purpose is to be like the old king—to help others seek out and pursue their personal legends.
Due to multiple back injuries playing college football, I got into coaching pretty young. There was something powerful about playing a role in helping someone take their game to the next level.
This love for coaching evolved into my love for being a creative cheerleader in my art, writing, speaking and podcasting.
Don't get me wrong, I'm still selfish and live for the glory and affirmations. However, I realize I'm just a small role player in the grand scheme of things.
I second guess myself and my abilities on the daily; the inner critic is always trying to convince that what I have to offer is meaningless.
I don't have a remedy to rewire myself not to think this way. However, I've trained myself to read the omens.
My Omens
The omens I've learned to tune into are:
the engagement I get when I share my work online
the podcast analytics and the love you send my way
the spontaneous opportunities that show up when I'm in a pinch for money
the insane amount of fucking joy I feel when someone tells me they found their groove with their work
It's these types of omens that let me know I'm on the right path to finding that treasure. Each day, I'm a little more focused on exactly what I want in life. The more I believe that the universe wants me to win, the more and more opportunities that seem to come my way.
This book is a constant reminder that chasing my personal legend isn't easy. The bumps in the road are necessary for growth along the way.
Again, the four ingredients I share with you today are what I believe make up the secret sauce to finding your personal legend are:
Don't believe the World's biggest lie
Know what you want
Follow the omens
Owning your choices
We all have a personal legend waiting for us—it's up to you find the treasure within.
Shownotes
Books:
Dose of Inspiration: @benrealvsworld
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Music - Blookah
Executive Assistant - Paige Garland
Photo & Video Specialist - Colton Bachar
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