If you want to do something extraordinary in life, you should learn from Jonathan himself, Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach, the Interesting thing about this book is that it is not a self-help book talking about core concepts but a novella, depict it has affected lives of many people and motivated them to keep going.


Seagulls generally only care about food and nothing else, but our hero Jonathon is a bit different, he gets the thrill in flying. He just wants to fly high and fast. Flying is his life and he doesn’t care about anything, not even food. And that’s why his parents are always disappointed with him, They always try to convince him that seagulls don’t fly for passion, we only fly when we need to search for food and that’s it, our wings are not designed to do stunts and tricks. But he never listens to them and keeps going. But lately, he was a bit stuck in the new trick he was learning that was diving. Coming straight down with wings closed and opening just before the landing. When he was practicing that, he had an accident he was not able to open the wings in time and got straight into the water. He was so frustrated that he felt like a failure all the words from his dad started echoing in his head, “Seagulls are not meant for this he should give up”,  he accepted his fate and starting flying back to home. But in his head, he was just imagining how a falcon can do that, started observing every movement they do, and realized he was just missing the timing and he can do that, this sparked a feeling of excitement in him. He went to a height of 1200 ft and dived from there wings close eyes open fully focused, at this point he didn’t even care that he will die or live he just went for it. Down and down his speed was increasing 120, 140, 160, and Boom! Wide-open wings just before hitting the water and smooth lading! His happiness was at the peak, he truly felt like he won!


After a few weeks when he was practicing his dive from the height of 5000ft, his speed was extremely fast and a bunch of 7 seagulls came in his way it was a deadly accident but he managed to dodge it and no one got harmed. Seagulls told this to other seagulls and in the evening Jonathan was called by the old leader in a meeting where all the seagulls were present, Jonathan thought that they will appreciate his talent and ask how can you fly like that we never thought that it was but possible, but the opposite happened, he was very angry with him and was yelling at him that “have you lost your mind, seagulls should only fly to find food. Your act was very careless” Jonathan tries to explain the joy he gets from flying and they should try it as well. But the leader got angry and removes him from there colony. But Jonathon did not get much sad because now he can practice his flying without any boundations! he practiced his flying with complete dedication and one day when he was flying very high, he found 2 more seagulls following him, they were very beautiful and fast. He tried to escape them with all the tricks he had they seemed to follow him with ease, he got tired and asked them. Who are you why are you following me! They replied we are your brother and are here to take you with us in heaven!


Heaven was a place full of seagulls like him, extraordinary. They all have crossed the limits of an ordinary seagull. There he met his master, Chiang. Chiang was an enlightened seagull who was ready to move to a dimension beyond heaven. Chiang explained that “Heaven is not a place, it is a feeling inside you”, he told him that you should always try to be perfect and keep practicing. Jonathan was very impressed by him and asked Chiang to teach him. Jonathon learned everything from Chiang, and finally, it was time for Chiang to move in next dimension, his body started glowing, it was so bright that no one could look at him, at that time he told Jonathan to understand love, and disappeared…


He started thinking about this started thinking that how he spent his life on earth, are there more seagulls like him trying to fly high? He decided that he will go back to earth and teach the seagulls who will try to learn. On earth, he found one more seagull abandoned from his colony and started teaching him, his name was, Fletcher. Jonathon realized that Fletcher is an excellent student with great absorbing capabilities. He was learning quickly and Jonathon was very impressed, he decided that there might be more seagulls they decided to go back to the colony, They did not accept them and told everyone not to interact with these 2 seagulls. But Jonathon did not get disappointed, he started giving lessons in front of them. A few days past and 1 more young seagull joined them, then one more and one more. It kept going all Jonathon had a lot of students. Jonathon found love in teaching, and one day his body also started glowing the same as Chiang. And before disappearing he told Fletcher the same words… “Understand love”


This book has a ton of morals, values, and learnings everyone learns something different from it. If you have read this far, tell us what you learned from this book. Try something different from “follow your passion” You can read the whole story from the book - https://amzn.to/3bQmHkK


Happy Reading!