4 Lessons From The Alchemist That Made Me a Better Athlete
No distractions, just revelations.
The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo. Where do we begin?
I’ve made it clear that I don’t love self-help books — I think most of them are corny, repetitive, and unoriginal. However even if it falls into that genre, I do love The Alchemist.
Coehlo teaches us to achieve our personal legends in a novel about personal legends while simultaneously achieving his personal legend — it’s a simply complex work of genius.
Sure, it’s not the most complex novel of all time. There are books with better characters, better plots, and more interesting or important ideas. But The Alchemist achieves its objective without trying to be revolutionary. That’s why it’s timeless: any of us can be Santiago.
There’s no distractions, just revelations.
No stalling, just action.
These are the lessons from The Alchemist that have most helped me in my athletic career:
1. If Someone Helps You Believe in Yourself, They Don’t Need To Be an Expert
This is kind of a silly little story:
When I was 17, I started taking kickboxing classes and doing jiu-jitsu once or twice a week…
