Ken Robinson and Lou Aronica, Finding Your Element: How to Discover Your Talents and Passions and Transform Your Life, London: Penguin Books, 2013.
The follow-up from The Element, in Finding Your Element Robinson and Aronica ask readers to work through (or at least read through) questions and exercises designed to lead a person to re/discover what it is they should be doing, professionally or non-professionally, to lend meaning to their life.
What they ‘should be doing’ is their ‘element’, the intersection of passion and talent.
The book’s exercises challenge the reader to discern what they are good at, and how they know they are good at it. It asks the reader to discover what they love, and what makes them happy. There could be obstacles, either real or imagined, in the way of the reader finding their element, and attitude could be one of those obstacles. Readers are encouraged to develop a growth mindset, the ‘belief that you can develop your aptitudes and possibilities through your own efforts’ (p. 152).
In planning where to go from here, the reader is to remember that their life is unique, it can be created and re-created, and it is organic, not linear.
Robinson and Aronica aptly conclude the book with an overview of regrets from people in palliative care. The most common regrets from the soon-to-be-dead are (pp. 239-240):
‘I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.’
‘I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.’
‘I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.’
‘I wish I’d stayed in touch with my friends.’
‘I wish that I had let myself be happier.’
Concomitant advice for the living includes (p. 241):
Honour your dreams;
Reduce the burden;
Value your own life and feelings;
Value those you love.
Please note, this book is not intended to replace therapy.
To visit Ken Robinson's website, follow this link.
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