Tag Archives: review

The Devil and Miss Prym by Paulo Coelho

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I read the Alchemist and I was completely moved as a person, as a human, who was also on a quest to learn my own way in life. I was struck by the raw serendipity of the main character, and the almost coincidental / too wild to be real events that continually happened to the main character.

The Devil and Miss Prym was no different.

When we are first introduced to the book, we learn about an old lady, old Berta, who sits on her front porch waiting for the Devil to arrive. She knows this because she’s talking with her dead husband who shows her the answers, and coincidentally the future.

Old Berta is not Miss Prym. Miss Prym is the young woman, the last young person, living in the small and aging town of Viscos, a community isolated from the rest of the modern world and extremely content with this fact. An honest village working hard for their money. Miss Prym is the young lady sitting by the river looking to accidentally bump into the new stranger in town – yes, who’s the Devil.

As with all Coelho books, this book ends with a clear message or lesson about the way of human life. A message. Gospel to live by. It was a nice break from the more serious non-fiction books I’ve been reading as of late.

Have you ever read The Devil and Miss Prym? How do you find Coelho books?

 

Focus

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If a mission statement has been written, the goals are known.

Stay focused on your goals. You know what you want; you know where you want to be, keep this always in your mind.

At the end of the week, review the goals that you set down for yourself. Take some time then to think about what has got in your way to slow you down in reaching your goals.

Are you spending too much time socializing with friends?

Do you find that it’s always with certain people that you slip back into your old habits that you’re trying to rid yourself of?

Do you always tell yourself that your too tired today, and tomorrow you will start?

Do you spend too much time preparing everything, writing down your goals and never achieving them?

Think now about what you can do to correct these issues. Make easier goals that you’ll be able to achieve and cross off your list, feel that sense of accomplishment and make it worth your while to continually push yourself to the limits of what you feel you can achieve.

This is the essence of being an effective person. You need to continually impress yourself with new personal bests that make you feel proud and motivated to do more. Don’t let anything ruin your dream for you.

When you learn more about what you want, you can always change your focus to a slightly more directed area, but always keep motivated and pushing yourself to become better, learn more, and have as much fun as you can!