Your Dreams Come True When You Fly Like Jonathan, The Seagull

Credits: Google Images

On this World Book Day, the 23rd of April 2015, here is my recommended reading for you. Read the ebook Jonathan Livingston Seagull by clicking on the link here.

A classic novella by Richard Bach, published in 1970, this story is of a Seagull who has vision, courage, resilience and commitment to reach to his dreams. An inspiring parable of love, truth, self-perfection, forgiveness and finding true meaning and purpose in life by breaking norms, this fable encourages you to read it multiple times and interpret it the way you want.

I know, you might have read it already, but then, I recommend you to read it again. Read it for yourself, for your students, for your family members and for your kids and share the immense pearls of wisdom tapped in pages of this book.

And here are 9 lessons that I learnt from reading, Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach, again.

1. Be Limitless in the Limited Life

You have limited years in your life, but the things that you can do in your life are limitless. So, just get rid of all your limiting beliefs, all those ideas and thoughts that discourage you, prohibit you and stop you from achieving what you want, just abort them before they are born. And then, think like Jonathan, the Seagull.

“We can lift ourselves out of ignorance, we can find ourselves as creatures of excellence and intelligence and skill. We can learn to be free! we can learn to fly!”

“Jonathan Seagull discovered that boredom and fear and anger are the reasons that a gull’s life is so short, and with those gone from his thought, he lived a long fine life indeed.”

2. Find a True Purpose and Meaning in Life 

Like Jon, find something too compelling and meaningful in your life, that forces you to transcend your own limitations and boundaries and make you one like the Jon.

“Do you have any idea how many lives we must have gone through before we even got the first idea that there is more to life than eating, or fighting, or power in the Flock? A thousand lives, Jon, ten thousand!”

And then…

“For most gulls it was not flying that matters, but eating. For this gull, though, it was not eating that mattered, but flight.”

3. Explore the Unknown like Jonathan

Be yourself and find what motivates you and keep going.

“You have the freedom to be yourself, your true self, here and now, and nothing can stand in your way.”

Find what you true passion is like Jonathan did.

“Why, Jon, why?” his mother asked. “Why is it so hard to be like the rest of the flock, Jon? Why can’t you leave low flying to the pelicans, the albatross? Why don’t you eat? Son, you’re bone and feathers!” “I don’t mind being bone and feathers mom. I just want to know what I can do in the air and what I can’t, that’s all. I just want to know.” 

4. Be an Indefatigable Learner 

You will stagnate, if you do not learn everyday. In this digital age, information becomes obsolete too fast, so don’t stop. Never cease to learn. Ask yourself everyday, what is the new thing that I have learnt today? And follow what Jonathan did.

“One school is finished, and the time has come for another to begin.”

5. Have Goal, Purpose and Vision in Your Life

Keep moving on the path of your dreams and see what others can’t see. They are limited with their vision. You are not!

“Don’t believe what your eyes are telling you. All they show is limitation. Look with your understanding. Find out what you already know and you will see the way to fly.”

6. Move on, Even When Others Say You are Wrong

Don’t be discouraged when others say that what you are doing is not worth.

“Jonathan sighed. The price of being misunderstood, he thought. They call you devil or they call you god.

If your vision connects deeply with you purpose in your life, then follow your heart. In your pursuit, you will come across many dreamers like Jonathan came across, later on his high flights.

7. Take Consistent Actions and Pursue Your Goals with Passion

Become one with your Goal and life’s mission.

“He was not bone and feather but a perfect idea of freedom and flight, limited by nothing at all.”

“Your whole body, from wingtip to wingtip,” Jonathan would say, other times, “is nothing more than your thought itself, in a form you can see. Break the chains of your thought, and you break the chains of your body, too.”

8. Move on Even When You are Alone

Don’t stop. Don’t quit. Keep your momentum. Even when you are alone, just move on.

“Overcome space, and all we have left is Here. Overcome time, and all we have left is Now.”

“We choose our next world through what we learn in this one. Learn nothing, and the next world is the same as this one, all the same limitations and lead weights to overcome.”

9. Share Your Success Story and Design a Path for Others to Follow

“You have to practice and see the real gull, the good in everyone of them and to help them see in themselves.That’s what I mean by love.”

After reading this story, I know, you will feel like Jonathan, the Seagull. And if you think like you are one such, then you are absolutely right. Like Jon,  you too have those dreams and wings inside you. But sometimes, situations, circumstances, experiences and people in your life, may stop you from taking that long flight that you so much yearn and deserve. So, this story is for you to remind you of your dreams.

It reminds you that you too have the wings of your dream and they are there so that you can take flight and find a newer world for yourself. This story is for your kids so that you can tell them how much you love them and how you want them to be Jonathan Seagull of their life. This story is for your family. So that you, as a family can decide that you too, all together have a beautiful dream to realize.

So, be the Jonathan of your life and take your much awaited dream flight!