Paulo Coelho

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Today’s Question by Aart Hilal

Author: Paulo Coelho

When you talk about “following one’s dreams” and donating your life to the path, how do we know that the “dreams” that we believe we have are really our dreams and they weren’t given to us by other people, especially nowadays in the modern world of mass media marketing?

I do believe that a person has a personal legend to fulfill – and independent of any mass media, you know what to do. What is a personal legend? It is the reason why we are alive. We have dreams, that are not necessarily the dreams that our parents, or society has for us. So, we must get rid of the idea of fulfilling what people expect us to do, and start to do what we expect from our lives. The message in “Veronika decides to die” is that: dare to be different. You are unique, and you have to accept you as you are, instead of trying to repeat other people’s destinies or patterns. Insanity is to behave like someone that you are not. Normality is the capacity to express your feelings. From the moment that you don’t fear to share your heart, you are a free person.

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