When I first heard about the “way of the peaceful warrior,” I was ecstatic.
When I started reading the book, I grew increasingly impatient with it. I was waiting to feel as enthralled and mesmerized as I did with books like “the alchemist.”

What was the problem here, I questioned myself? The book had such great reviews, including people claiming that it had changed their lives. But I could not relate to any descriptions, I became disappointed. So I put the book away, half-read.
In the next few weeks, I searched for the reasons. And, then as if it should’ve been obvious all along, it came to me. This book is a description of all the things “the alchemist” made me see, feel, realize and understand. For the most part, the book tells me what “the alchemist” showed me.

This book is a story of a young man finding his meaning in life in which he describes the changes he underwent at the direction of his spiritual teacher. In “the alchemist,” the shepherd boy was alone, instead he let the universe teach him. Another important contrast is that the gymnast college student was constrained to a routine which I can identify with whereas the shepherd boy roamed the landscape of Andalasia to a career cleaning crystal to journeying across the dessert in search of his treasure in Egypt.

With almost no comparable freedom as that of the shepherd boy, and with all the restrictions of societal norms and expectations, I still identify myself more with that shepherd boy than with the college student in this book.

But, there are a few lessons or truths I have realized in this book. These are very important to me because they were just what I was looking for and what I needed at the time.

1. Our lives are not a private affair, they are meant to be shared.

2. Be an ordinary person, it will help you help people.

3. Be unreasonably happy.