Remember your dreams and fight for them

According to Coelho, successful people must overcome fear and follow their dreams.
When referring to the fear of failure, Coelho adds, �Tell your heart that the fear
of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And no heart has ever suffered
when it goes in search of its dream.�
When I was in high-school, I dreamed of becoming a professional skateboarder; I
genuinely loved that sport. I remember waking up every day with excitement, waiting
for the moment I could get on my skateboard and feel the wheels under my feet and
the air brushing my hair, but my dad massacred that dream without prejudice.
If I remember well, he said: �Only 1% of skateboarders are lucky enough to make a
living from skateboarding, and you aren�t that lucky. Better get yourself a college
degree and do something with your life.�
Sadly, I believed my dad�s words. I was so afraid of failing or disappointing my
parents, that I quit my dream. I listened to my inner demons instead of my heart,
which was a costly mistake. To be fair, I don�t know for sure whether or not I
could have been a professional skateboarder, but it�s something I�ll never know.
The bottom line? When fear seizes your soul, and you think you�re not good enough,
when no one else believes in you, remember your dreams and fight for them. You have
what it takes to handle whatever life throws at you.
�Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives,
but none about his or her own.� � Paulo Coelho
2. You drown not by falling into a river, but by staying submerged in it
If you can know only one thing about Coelho, it should be that he never regrets for
the �wrong� decisions he made or the painful times he went through. He says: �I
don�t regret my painful times, I bare my scars as if they were medals. I know that
freedom has a high price, as high as that of slavery; the only difference is that
you pay with pleasure and a smile, even when that smile dimmed by tears.�
This is a crucial life lesson. Like Coelho, I believe that we learn more from our
faifor can be anticlimactic, so learn to love Never get lost in a crowd.