This book is well complemented by:
Vocation
Ken Robinson
Strength of will
Kelly McGonigal
This year I…
M. J. Ryan
Allow yourself to create
Natalie Ratkowski
Muse, where are your wings?
Yana Frank
Get out of your comfort zone
Brian Tracy
whole life
Les Hewitt
To Peter Brinson, who inspired and taught me to live life to the fullest and help others to do the same.
Introduction
This book is designed to help you find your calling.
While I was in Oklahoma a few years ago, I heard one old story. Two fry were swimming down the river and met a mature fish that was swimming towards them. The fish said: Good morning, Guys. How do you like the water today? The fry, only smiling in response, moved on. After they had swum some distance, one of them stopped and asked the other, "Listen, what is water?" The water element was so natural for him that he did not even notice it. Living in accordance with your calling is in many ways similar to the behavior of a small fish. After all, the meaning of such a life is to do what seems so natural and appropriate for you. inner world to become inseparable from his occupation.
Have you already found your calling? Do you know what it is and how to find it? Many people live in accordance with their calling, feeling as if they are doing what they were born to do. But there are also enough of those who have not found their calling. They do not enjoy life, but simply kill time during the week in anticipation of the weekend.
In 2009, the book “Vocation. How to find what you are made for and live in your element, dedicated to describing the differences between two styles of life: in your element and out of it. A calling can be found where innate disposition and interest meet. You need to start with a natural inclination towards an activity, such as playing the guitar, basketball, cooking, teaching, working with technology or animals. People find their calling by working as teachers, designers, housekeepers, entertainers, doctors, firefighters, artists, social workers, accountants, administrators, librarians, foresters, soldiers - in a word, in any field of activity. I recently spoke with a woman in her sixties who has worked as an accountant all her life. As a child, she quickly grasped everything that was connected with numbers, and enthusiastically studied mathematics. It was just given to her. Thus, an important step in finding your calling is understanding your abilities and talents.
However, living in your element does not mean just doing what you are good at. Many people have the makings of something that they are absolutely not interested in. Only if you truly love your job, you can say that you have found your calling. As in the case of a female accountant. After all, she not only had a talent for numbers - she adored them! Accounting never seemed to her a hated work routine. It was her favorite pastime. Confucius said, "Choose a job you love and you won't have to work a day in your life." By the way, he did not read my book, although it may seem that way.
The Calling book was supposed to push readers to take a fresh look at the kind of life they deserve. It has received a huge amount of positive feedback from people all over the world and is currently translated into twenty-three languages. At book launch meetings or when signing copies, people often told me that they were buying it in the hope of finding a new path in their lives. Some said that they buy it not for themselves, but for their children, parents, friends or parents of friends. I usually ask people what they do and if they like what they do. Regardless of the specific field of activity, there are always people who, without hesitation, answer: “I love my job!” and their faces light up. No other words will tell you more clearly that a person has found his calling. Some people think about it and then respond with things like, "It'll do for a while" or "This job allows me to make ends meet." And it immediately becomes clear to me that they still need to continue the search.
Why seek your calling at all? The main reason is personal. Only by finding your own business will you truly discover who you are and what you are capable of. The second reason is social. A lot of people lack meaning in life. A huge number of people are not interested in their work. More and more students feel that the education system does not give them what they expect. The consumption of painkillers, antidepressants and alcohol is on the rise. And indisputable proof of this public problem one can count the number of suicides committed annually, especially by young people.
Human resources are similar to natural resources in many ways: very often they are hidden deep under the surface, and you have to work hard to find them. Come to think of it, we hardly ever do it in schools, at work, or in our communities. And we pay dearly for our indifference. I am not saying that all social problems can be solved by helping all people find their calling, but improvements will be visible to the naked eye.
The third reason is economic. Calling is not always possible to apply in the main professional activity. Some people don't want to be paid for their calling, and some people can't. It all depends on what the calling is. In general, his search is aimed at establishing harmony in life. And yet there are economic reasons for this.
In our time, it often happens that during his working life a person changes his place of work and specialty several times. The beginning of your career does not always have to do with where it peaks. And understanding your vocation gives a much clearer direction of movement than a chaotic change of jobs. Whatever your age, it is always better to do something that gives you a sense of fulfillment.
If you have reached the middle of your professional path, you are probably ready for a radical change that will give you the opportunity to do business that resonates with your nature. If at the moment you do not have a job, then you will not find a better time to understand yourself and the world around you in order to find your way in it. In times of economic downturn, this is even more relevant than ever. If you know what your calling is, the likelihood that you will be able to find a job for yourself increases significantly. And for organizations, especially those with tight budgets, it's important that employees feel like they're doing something meaningful for themselves and others. If the staff of the company is dedicated, it is more likely to succeed than one that employs indifferent, cynical and uninitiated employees.
Natalia Vikulina
How to find yourself as an adult
To my son Costa
Why am I writing this book
Hello son!
The book you hold in your hands is my gift to you. I wrote about what I think is very important. If you are reading it, then you are already old enough to ask yourself: what will I do in this life? What do I want to do to make it interesting and useful, and preferably also bring money?
I am writing this book when you are only two years old. Although you are still very small, I already care about what you will become when you grow up. And I'm not talking about the profession. I mean will you be happy. Will you be inquisitive enough to seek answers to the most difficult questions? Do you need help or will you do it all on your own? I don't know what you will be when you grow up. So it turns out I'm writing this book for a person I don't know.
To be completely honest, this book is not only for you, but also for me. And for everyone who is interested in getting answers to questions that bother me and someday, probably, will bother you.
I will try to make the book not too long and boring, although the second will not be easy.
Your mother
What is this book about
Hello son!
Let me explain a little about what this book is about. The name already suggests: about calling. But what is it?
Let's just limit ourselves to a definition for now: a vocation is a useful thing that you can do for a long time (many years) with joy and pleasure, and you are good at it. And then we will try to understand the issue in more detail.
True, if it were only necessary to give a definition of vocation, then I would not write a whole book, even a very small one. I also want to look for answers to various questions, for example:
What good is it to find your calling? Or maybe there is something bad?
Does calling help you get rich?
Can a person have multiple callings? Or not be one?
What or who can help you find your calling? How about preventing it?
How to understand that the work you have chosen is your calling?
These are the questions.
In addition, this book:
About science in general and about psychology in particular;
About books;
About people, including me.
Well, a little bit about other things. You'll see for yourself!
Your mother
How do I know all this
Hello son!
You may ask: “Mom, how do you know everything that is written in this book?”
Usually, elders answer such questions: “Life experience, son!” Or: "Live with mine - you will know." So it is, but I studied this topic specifically for the book.
At first I wanted to spend the whole psychological research according to all the rules: study the literature, formulate a hypothesis, draw up a sample, interview respondents, analyze the results. I even made a special trip to Tomsk, met with my former supervisor, a doctor psychological sciences, and arranged for her to contribute to the writing of the book. It was a wonderful trip! I really wanted to create a complete scientific work- and preferably interesting.
But over time, the desire to do this work according to the rules of science disappeared. I wanted to make this book not objective, but, on the contrary, very personal and subjective (I will talk about objective and subjective in one of the following letters). But the attempt to act according to all the rules of scientific research was not in vain. Firstly, I read some books, including scientific ones, and I will talk about them later.
And secondly, I still made a sample and talked with people who, in their own words, found their calling. There were eight people in total: not too many, but not too few. Believe me, it is not easy to find a person who will confidently say: “Yes, I have found my calling!”
Some of these people are my old acquaintances, but I met the majority of those interviewed for the first time. I am very grateful to them for agreeing to meet and talk.
The book also contains stories of people borrowed from other books. They are no worse than those I have heard myself, and in some cases only in a book have I been able to find a story that best illustrates an idea.
So to the question “how do I know all this?” I can answer: I read books, talked with people. AND life experience, Certainly!
Your mother
Calling by Ken Robinson
Hello son!
I want to talk about Ken Robinson's book. He is much more famous than me, and besides, he is much more authoritative in matters of finding a vocation. "Vocation. How to find what you are made for and live in your element” is, in my opinion, one of the key books on this topic. In it, the author talks about celebrities such as Paul McCartney, Paulo Coelho, Meg Ryan, Bob Dylan, as well as personalities known in narrower circles - architects, scientists and people of other professions who have found their calling. Robinson does not just retell the facts of the biography, but talks about what exactly helped these people find their calling. “Find your tribe”, “Think differently”, “Your element” - these are all the titles of the chapters of his book.
In a sense, I repeat Ken Robinson's idea: I talk about people who have found their calling, and try to understand how they got it and how they live with it. Only, unlike Robinson, my characters are not famous or even widely known. famous people. I write about people who walk the streets next to us, and they are not besieged by crowds of fans. After all, it seems to me that after reading a book by Ken Robinson, you can say: “Come on, I'm not as talented as Paul McCartney” - and not even try to look for my vocation.
I don't want to say that you shouldn't read Robinson's "Vocation" - you really should! But I hope my book will complement it - with stories of people like you and me.
Your mother
Objective and subjective
Hello son!
Perhaps, even without me, you already know very well how the objective differs from the subjective. Then you can skip this letter.
As I already wrote, at first I wanted my book to come out objectively, to be created on the basis of scientific research. This means, roughly speaking, that everything in the book should be as it really is. Not as it seems to me or someone else, not my personal opinion (this is just subjective).
I will give a simple example. Everything that happens to a person, all the facts of his life is an objective reality. For example, you were really born - that's a fact. At a certain age you said the first word, at a certain age you went. All this is an objective reality.
But what you remember and know about it is subjective. For example, you might say, “I remember having a red car as a child.” Your memories of the typewriter is a subjective reality, something that only you experience. In fact, this machine might not have existed, but for some reason you have a picture in your head that it was. Or maybe there was a car, maybe there was such a fact in your life. But anyway, your memories of this machine, the pictures in your head associated with it, sensations, emotions - all this is subjective.
Sometimes it is not easy to separate subjective ideas about what is happening from objective reality itself. A lot of people (yes, almost everyone!) make this mistake: they are often sure that what they think is in fact. Here Maryivanna thinks about her neighbor Tatyanvasilna, that she is a greedy and gossip girl. And Marivanna is sure that this is true. Try to say that it only seems to her, but in fact Tatyanvasilna is an economical and sociable woman! “Of course, tell me! Yes, such greedy and gossips still look for!
So what is Tatyanvasilna really like - greedy and gossip or economical and sociable?
One way to find out if something objectively exists is to ask other people. For example, someone sees green men in his room and cannot understand whether they really got wound up in him or if this is a hallucination. To understand whether they really exist, it is enough to ask someone else: “Do you see green men too?”
True, this method does not always work. For example, for a long time people were convinced that the earth was flat. But now we know that it is closer to a ball in shape, and we have reason to believe that this is objective knowledge, because science confirms this. About how science finds out what is objective reality, I will not discuss here - you'd better ask someone who is engaged in science about this.
The question of objective and subjective is philosophical. This means that it is not simple enough, you cannot answer it with a swoop, and you can argue about it for a long time. But in the first approximation, everything is about the same as I wrote.
Your mother
Vocation, bricks and little green men
Hello son!
At the very beginning, when thinking about the theme and plan of the book, I set myself the task of answering the question “What is a vocation?”. That's how I phrased it. As if vocation is something objectively su...
Find your calling. How to discover your true talents and fill life with meaning Ken Robinson, Lou Aroniki
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Title: Find your calling. How to discover your true talents and fill life with meaning
Author: Ken Robinson, Lou Aroniki
Year: 2013
Genre: Foreign business literature, Foreign psychology, Personal growth, job search, career, Social Psychology
About Finding Your Purpose. How to discover your true talents and fill your life with meaning.” Ken Robinson, Lou Aroniki
Each of us wants to find our mission and leave our mark on this planet. But few people even manage to find a job that would bring not only an excellent income, but also great pleasure. In the whirlpool of life events, we have completely forgotten what a dream, a hobby is. Why, we don’t even know what a good rest is.
Ken Robinson and Lou Aroniki wrote a book called Finding Your Calling. How to discover your true talents and fill life with meaning. Work is the occupation that takes up most of life. Therefore, if it brings joy, then we are more happy, and vice versa. And few people even manage to decide for themselves what they would like to do. If you still cannot answer the question of what you would like to do with your whole life with confidence, then you absolutely need to read this book.
Ken Robinson and Lou Aroniki offer their ideas on how to find your purpose in life. This book will be your guide on this difficult journey. Here you will find a lot of ideas, tips and rules that will help you understand yourself, understand what is for you and what you need, what brings joy and what makes you sad.
There is nothing more convincing than examples from the lives of real people. This is exactly what Ken Robinson and Lou Aroniki did in their book Finding Your Calling. How to discover your true talents and fill life with meaning” and added a huge number of illustrative examples of people who show life before and after finding the meaning of life.
To begin with, the authors offer you to look inside your consciousness, to understand your desires. And, believe me, this process will be very exciting and will bring you a lot of unexpected surprises. You will learn a lot about yourself that you did not know before.
After that, you will be offered several directions in search of your true calling. In fact, this is a very individual matter. Here, each person should have a special approach, but there are methods that will suit everyone. The book is structured in such a way that you seem to be directed in the right direction, and then you decide for yourself where to turn and what to pay attention to.
Finding Your Calling book. How to discover your true talents and fill life with meaning ”is suitable not only for those who are looking for their calling, but also for everyone who is confused, who wants to know himself better. In addition, the techniques proposed by Ken Robinson and Lou Aroniki will help open up new possibilities and new knowledge. The book is read in one breath and all the information is presented in a clear and accessible language, which is very important for ordinary readers who are not familiar with the basics of psychology.
Published in Russian for the first time.
On our site about books, you can download the site for free without registration or read online book“Find your calling. How to discover your true talents and fill life with meaning ”Ken Robinson, Lou Aroniki in epub, fb2, txt, rtf, pdf formats for iPad, iPhone, Android and Kindle. The book will give you a lot of pleasant moments and a real pleasure to read. Buy full version you can have our partner. Also, here you will find last news from literary world, find out the biography of your favorite authors. For novice writers, there is a separate section with useful tips and tricks, interesting articles, thanks to which you can try your hand at writing.
Quote from Finding Your Calling. How to discover your true talents and fill your life with meaning.” Ken Robinson, Lou Aroniki
To find your calling, you need to take into account both inclinations and abilities.
To find your calling, you need to be open to new experiences and try new paths and opportunities offered by the world around you.
On a new sheet of paper, draw a big circle and divide it into three parts depending on how much time you spend on what you like, what you don't care about, and what you don't like. What does this "pie" look like?
If you are in the process of searching, if you really want to determine what is worth doing in life, in no case limit your horizons - this can have the most negative consequences for you.
What has had the biggest impact on you when making important life decisions?
What aspects of your life are the most exciting for you?
What do you like least in your life?
Imagination is the ability to create in the mind that which cannot be perceived by the senses. In imagination we can go beyond this moment and go back in time.
Natural abilities, or inclinations, are part of your "raw" potential.
Do you know what your calling is?
Do you know which direction you need to go?
What would you like to try that you have never done before?
Why haven't you done this yet?
Vocation is the child of the union of nature and education.
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Is it possible to develop creativity? Or is it only available to a select few? Renowned human development expert Sir Ken Robinson has found the answers to these questions. For a long time he headed the UK Government Commission on Creativity and Education. He was an international adviser in Singapore, where he dealt with the same issues. Sir Robinson's observations, research, and advice became available to the general public. In numerous works, he shares his experience and advice.
Who is Ken Robinson?
His work is creativity: how to educate, develop and materialize. Sir Robinson is sure that too many people have no idea about their true talent and calling. He dispels the popular myth that creativity is the lot of the elite. Sir Robinson's conversations with world-renowned businessmen, government leaders and teachers confirm that creativity can be developed consciously and systematically.
Ken's childhood passed in Liverpool, in a house full of noise and laughter. The front door was only a hundred yards from Everton Football Club. The family dreamed that he would become a world football star. This was not destined to come true - at the age of four, Ken fell ill with polio. Recovery lasted seven months, parents helped the child develop traditional skills and abilities. A healthy child became almost paralyzed overnight. That was not easy. But they overcame the difficulties, and Ken opened up a whole world of amazing possibilities.
The first of six brothers and sisters, he received his secondary education in one of best schools Liverpool. Education radically changed his life. “If the teacher had not seen in me what I did not see, my life could have gone in a completely different direction,” says Ken Robinson. Studied English and Drama at Bretton Hall College, then Drama and Theater Education at the University of London.
What are his achievements?
Sir Robinson was the director of the Art in Schools project, which was attended by over 2,000 teachers and art professionals. In three years, more than three hundred initiatives have been developed and submitted to the British National syllabus. At the same time, Robinson was a consultant to the Hong Kong Academy of Arts. For twelve years he was Professor of Education at the University of Warwick. Sir Robinson is now Professor Emeritus:
- Birmingham City University;
- Rhode Island School of Design;
- Ringling College fine arts and design;
- Royal Central School of Speech and Dramatic Art;
- Open University (OU);
- Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts.
Ken Robinson chaired the 1998 UK commission on creativity, education and the economy. His report "All Our Future" was presented to the general public and received recognition. The Times stated: "The report raises important questions facing business in the 21st century”. Robinson is the author of strategy and economic development V Northern Ireland. The result of this work is the Unleash Creativity program endorsed by politicians and leaders in business, education and culture. Sir Ken's work has received many awards:
- for educational services with the Athena Award from the Rhode Island School of Design;
- for contributions to the arts and culture in the United States with the Peabody Medal;
- for International Achievement in Education with the LEGO Award;
- for outstanding contributions to cultural relations between the United Kingdom and the United States, the Benjamin Franklin Medal of the Royal Society of Arts;
- from the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation Award for Imagination;
- for outstanding services in the field of art and education, Queen Elizabeth II knighted him.
As an education professor, Robinson knows how the academic and organizational culture of education can stifle creativity and fundamentally ignore people's natural talents and passions, preventing them from finding their calling. Ken Robinson calls on leaders, managers and educators to start a creative revolution to reap the rewards.
What is he working on?
Robinson believes that the current education system promotes standardization, not creative learning. He emphasizes that success can only be achieved by realizing that education is an organic system, not a mechanical one. A successful school is about creating a favorable climate, not management and control. To achieve success, you need to develop in three areas:
- Offer a wide curriculum and encourage individualization of the learning process.
- Promote curiosity through creative learning.
- Awaken creativity with didactic processes, focusing less on standardized testing.
Robinson is sure that by focusing on the development of certain skills, giving the palm individual items and by imposing highly regulated assessment methods, schools put pressure on children and hinder the development of important abilities. To help children find their place in the 21st century, in a world where the demands are ever higher, the rhythm is ever faster, it is necessary to get rid of rigidity of thinking and develop natural abilities.
What does it offer?
Ken Robinson quickly became the most famous and talked about speaker in the history of the prestigious TED conference. It pushes people to rethink outdated assumptions about intelligence and creativity and unlock their real potential. Robinson's speaking style, vivid examples, humor and the content of his lectures are attracting more and more listeners. In 2017, they were viewed by more than 50 million people.
In one of the presentations, he talks about the need for "systemic innovation", debunks the myths that many organizations support. Robinson presents a three-tiered strategy for creating "systemic innovation" in an organization and talks about the role of creative leaders in this process.
What does it take to achieve personal success and feel like you belong? Robinson answers this question in the second presentation, where he explains that personal success is driven not only by natural talent, but rather by the subtle interplay between talent, passion, attitude, and opportunity. This allows people to reach the highest level success and lead a purposeful, meaningful life. Robinson explains in detail how to find a calling, why neither age nor profession is an obstacle.
Is everyone creative or just a select few? Why do many adults think they are uncreative? Is it possible to develop creativity? What changes are needed in schools? The third conference is dedicated to answering these questions. Here Robinson explains in detail why changes in the educational system are needed and what parents, educators, and politicians should do.
Sir Ken, as a respected adviser to governments in Europe, Asia and the United States, argues in this powerful presentation that many countries are headed in the wrong direction in education. Robinson talks about what can happen in our lives when passion and talent come together. Brings personal stories from life famous people, including Sir Paul McCartney, Arianna Huffington, Matt Groening, Meg Ryan and famous physicist Richard Feynman. Many of these stories are detailed in his highly acclaimed books: Calling, Education vs. Talent, Finding Your Calling, School of the Future.
What are his books about?
In The Calling, Ken Robinson uses examples from the lives of famous people to explain that every person has great natural abilities. And the more he is in contact with the outside world, the faster he loses them. And one of the main reasons, paradoxical as it may sound, is education. Too many people never discover their talents, which means only one thing - they don't know what they can achieve. They do not know who they really are, and for the most part they do not do what is close to them and gives them joy. They do not enjoy life to the fullest, but kill time while waiting for the weekend.
Like the current education system harming schools and students, the reader will learn from the book School of the Future. Ken Robinson details that many school reforms are motivated by commercial and political interests. As a result, they worsen the prospects of young people. Late or early, negatively or positively, but it will affect the people around you. It is important to understand the essence of the reforms. Many schools are already working in a new way, offering children individualized, oriented education. There are entire districts and nationwide systems that are moving in a new direction.
Finding a calling is essential. And this process is purely personal and often full of surprises. Each person has different starting conditions and abilities. And everyone has their own calling. There are principles that apply to everyone, there are universal strategies and techniques that are suitable for everyone. The book "Find Your Calling" is a ready-made guide, a roadmap on the path of search. The book is full of tips, ideas, rules and techniques. The author cites stories of real people who have found a calling and live full life. Exercises are provided for each chapter to better understand yourself.
Each person has a unique ability to create. The main thing is to realize your creative potential, to find a calling. Education does not fully cope with this task. And most people live their lives not only without discovering the talent, but without even realizing it. Many have the opinion that talent is only for the elite. In fact, each person has his own creative potential. It is important to understand the reasons that make you doubt this. In Education vs. Talent, Sir Ken offers creative and original ideas. Tells in detail about the conditions conducive to the development of personality.
Should You Read Ken Robinson's Books?
The books are for anyone who wants to make creativity an integral part of their lives. Anyone who wants to find a calling and live life creatively will find a lot of useful things in Robinson's books. Given the experience, merits of the author and the fact that his ideas are already working, and at the national level, you can be sure that the proposed rules and techniques will bring results. Robinson's books are one of the few that can be recommended to every person.
They will be useful to teachers and university professors, students and pupils, parents and educators, politicians and managers. Anyone who wants and knows that they could do more in life.
Current page: 1 (total book has 22 pages) [available reading excerpt: 5 pages]
Ken Robinson featuring Lou Aronica
Vocation. How to Find What You're Made for and Live in Your Element
Foreword
A few years ago I heard a wonderful story that I love to tell. One teacher primary school taught a drawing lesson to a group of six-year-old children. At the end of the class sat a little girl, who usually did not please teachers with attentiveness and diligence. But this did not apply to drawing lessons. For twenty minutes, the girl selflessly drew, covering her sheet of paper from everyone. The intrigued teacher could not stand it and asked what she was drawing. The girl, without raising her eyes, replied: "I am painting God." Surprised, the teacher said, "But no one knows what God looks like."
The girl replied: “They will find out in a minute.”
I really like this story. She reminds us that young children have amazing confidence in their ideas. Most of us, as adults, lose that confidence. Ask first graders which of them believe in their Creative skills, - and a forest of hands will rise in response. Ask the same question to a group of high school students and you'll be amazed at how few "creatively self-assured" teenagers are. I sincerely believe that we all have great natural abilities from birth, but we lose many of them in the course of intensive communication with the outside world. It is paradoxical, but true: one of the main reasons for this process is education. As a result, most of us do not even know about our true talents and capabilities, and therefore have no idea what heights we can reach.
In other words, people don't know who they really are.
I travel a lot and work with people from all over the world. I work with educational institutions, corporations and non-profit organizations. Everywhere I meet students who are trying to determine their future and do not know where to start. I meet concerned parents who try to help them, but instead often prevent their children from realizing their true talents by insisting on the traditional and well-trodden paths to success. I meet employers who are trying to understand and better use the diverse talents of their employees. At some point, I lost count of people who didn't really understand what their individual talents and true interests were. What they are doing now does not give them pleasure, but these people have no idea what can really make them happy.
On the other hand, I have repeatedly met people who are very successful in all areas of life, passionate about their work and cannot imagine themselves in any other role. I believe their stories hold important lessons for all of us. They give us knowledge about the nature of human abilities and the importance of their realization. Speaking at various events around the world, I finally became convinced that it was real stories real people, and not dry statistics and the opinions of high-browed experts, convince us of the need to change our minds about ourselves, about how we build our lives, how we raise our children and manage our organizations.
This book contains many stories about the creative pursuits of very different people. Many of them were interviewed specifically for my book. These people tell how they first discovered their unique talents and how they were able to succeed in life doing what they love. I was especially impressed by the fact that they often went to this unusual paths, full of sharp turns, turns and surprises. Often, people I interviewed during the writing of the book said that our conversation allowed them to re-evaluate their ideas and life experiences that they had never discussed with anyone in this way before. Experience the moment of recognition. Feel the development of your talents. Feel support or opposition from family, friends, and teachers. Something that helped them move forward in spite of numerous obstacles.
The stories of these people are not fairy tales. They all lead complex lives full of challenges and difficult tasks. Their path to themselves was not easy and serene. They all experience both triumphs and falls. None of them live a "perfect" life. But all these people have one thing in common - the moments when they experience an amazing sense of their perfection.
That is why I believe that their stories and experiences are so important to you, the real heroes of my book.
In creating it, I wanted to offer you a broader view of human abilities and creativity and the benefits that each of us has a clear understanding of their talents and preferences. This book is devoted to issues that are of fundamental importance in the life of every person and, consequently, the children, friends, students around him ... To discuss these issues and designate the area in which our hobbies and achievements harmoniously merge, I will use the term own element. I believe in the need for each of us to find our element, not only because it will increase our satisfaction with life, but also because as the world evolves, the very future of our communities and institutions will depend on it.
The world today is changing faster than at any time in history. We understand that a completely different paradigm of human abilities is needed to enter a new era. We need to take a fresh look at the importance of human talent development and understand that talent manifests itself in different ways. It is necessary to create such an environment - in schools, workplaces and public institutions, - where each person would be encouraged to develop their creative potential. It is necessary to ensure that each person has the opportunity and ability to do what he must do in order to discover his calling.
This book is a hymn to the incredible diversity of human talents and preferences, a hymn to our extraordinary potential for growth and development. It gives an understanding of the conditions under which human talents flourish and under which they perish. And this book is also about how we learn to focus on the present and the only possible way to prepare for the unknown future.
In order to best realize ourselves and help each other in this, we urgently need to reconsider our point of view on human ability. We need to accept our element.
Chapter 1
To my sisters and brothers - Ethel Lena, Keith, Derek, Ian, John and Neil; to our extraordinary mom and dad, Ethel and Jim; to my son James, my daughter Kate and my life partner Terri. This book is dedicated to all of you. Your many talents. That endless love and joy that we give to each other. After all, it is next to you - beloved and loving - that I really am in my element.
Own element
Gillian was only seven years old, but her future was already in jeopardy. Her performance at school was simply disgusting. Gillian was late in completing assignments, her handwriting was terrible, and her test scores were depressing. In addition, the girl distracted the whole class from classes: either fidgeting noisily in place, or looking out the window, forcing the teacher to interrupt the lesson in order to again attract her attention, or disturbing the children sitting around her with her antics. Gillian didn't particularly care about any of this—she was used to being reprimanded by adults and didn't really consider herself a problem child—but the teachers were. The situation came to a head when the school administration wrote a letter to her parents.
The teachers felt that Gillian had learning disabilities and that it might be better for her to go to a school for children with handicapped. All this happened in the early 1930s. I think today they would consider her to have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), 1
Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). It is usually diagnosed in children with increased mobility, impaired concentration and poorly controlled impulsivity. Note. ed.
And they would put her on psychotropic drugs. However, at that time, this term had not yet been coined. ADHD was not to be cited at any opportunity.
Gillian's parents, having received a letter from the school, were very worried and immediately began to act. Gillian's mother dressed her daughter in her best dress and shoes, tied her hair into neat ponytails, and took her to a psychologist, fearing the worst.
Gillian told me that she remembers being invited into a large oak-panelled room with leather-bound books on the shelves. In the room, near a large desk, stood a respectable man in a tweed jacket. He led Gillian to the far end of the room and sat her on a huge leather sofa. Gillian's feet did not reach the floor, the environment was alarming. She was nervous about what impression she would make, so she sat on her hands to keep from fidgeting.
The psychologist returned to his desk and for the next twenty minutes questioned Gillian's mother about her daughter's difficulties at school and about the problems that the teachers said the girl was causing. Without asking a single question of Gillian herself, he watched her carefully all the time. This made Gillian extremely uncomfortable and embarrassed. Even at such a tender age, she knew that this man would play a significant role in her life. She knew what it meant to go to a special school, and she didn't want to have anything to do with that school. She didn't really think she had any real problems, but everyone around seemed to think otherwise. Judging by the way her mother answered questions, it is possible that even she thought so.
Who knows, maybe they're right, Gillian mused as she sat on the couch.
Finally Gillian's mother and the psychologist finished talking. The man got up from the table, walked over to the couch, and sat down next to the girl.
“Gillian, you have been very patient, thank you for that,” he said. “But hold on a little longer. Now I need to talk to your mom alone. We'll be out for a few minutes. Don't worry, it won't be long.
Gillian nodded apprehensively, and the two adults left her alone in the room. However, on leaving, the psychologist, leaning over the table, suddenly turned on the radio.
As soon as they left the room and into the corridor, the doctor said to Gillian's mother:
"Stay here a minute and see what she's doing."
There was a window in the wall through which one could see what was going on in the room. The adults stood so that Gillian could not see them. Almost immediately, the girl jumped to her feet and began to move around the room to the beat of the music. The two adults watched the girl silently for several minutes, amazed at her natural, almost primal grace.
Finally the psychologist turned to Gillian's mother and said, “You know, Mrs. Lynn, Gillian is not sick. She is a dancer. Take her to dance school."
I asked Gillian what happened next. She replied that her mother followed the psychiatrist's advice.
“I can't tell you how wonderful it was,” she told me. “I walked into a room full of people just like me. People who could not sit still for a long time. People who needed to move in order to think.
She started going to dance school once a week and practiced at home every day. She eventually entered the Royal ballet school in London. Then Gillian joined the Royal Ballet Company, became a soloist and traveled around the world with performances. When this stage of her career ended, the young woman created her own musical studio and staged a number of highly successful shows in London and New York. Then she met Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, in collaboration with whom the famous musicals "Cats" and "The Phantom of the Opera" were created, which received fantastic recognition and had tremendous success.
Little Jillian, a girl whose future was in jeopardy, became world famous as Jillian Lynn, one of the most famous choreographers of our time, who gave pleasure to millions of people and earned millions of dollars. It happened because someone looked deeply into her eyes. Someone sensitive and attentive, who had seen such children before and knew how to read the signs of hidden talent. Someone else could force her to take medication and tell her to calm down.
But Gillian was not a problem child. There was no need to send her to a special school.
She just needed help becoming who she really was.
Unlike Gillian, Matt always did well in school, got decent grades and coped with all the important things. control work. However, he was bored to death. To somehow have fun, he began to draw during the lessons.
“I could draw all the time,” he told me. “And I was so good at it that I could draw without looking at the drawing, and the teachers thought I was listening to them.”
Drawing lessons became for him an opportunity to fully surrender to his passion. “We were coloring pictures in coloring books, and I was just not able to stupidly paint inside the outlines. I wanted to marry them! Borders hindered and fettered the imagination.”
The hobby moved to a whole new level when Matt became a high school student. “In the drawing class, the rest just sat out, the teacher was bored, and the drawing supplies lay aside - no one used them. Therefore, I inspired as many drawings as I could - up to thirty per lesson! There was something exciting about creating something out of nothing. But one day the teachers realized that I was using too much paper and stopped me.
As my skill grew, it became more and more interesting: “Oh, this really remotely resembles what it should be like.” But then I realized that my drawings weren't technically getting much better, so I focused on stories and jokes. It seemed more entertaining to me."
Matt Groening, the world-famous creator of The Simpsons, found a true source of inspiration in the work of other artists whose drawings lacked technical prowess but were able to combine their distinctive art style with writing original stories. “I was encouraged by the fact that there were people who could not draw, but successfully made a living, such as James Thurber, for example. John Lennon was also very important person. In the books "I write as it is written" 2
A book of prose and poetry by John Lennon, published in 1964. In the British original, it has the name "In His Own Write" ("His own handwriting"). Note. ed.
And "The Spaniard on the Wheel" 3
John Lennon's second book published in 1965. The original title "A Spaniard in the Works" is a play on words that cannot be translated into Russian. Note. ed.
It's full of his own really poor drawings, but there's also a lot of hilarious prose poetry and crazy stories. At some stage, I tried to imitate John Lennon. Also a big influence on me was Robert Crumb 4
The master of modern American counterculture, screenwriter, actor, artist, who adheres to anarchist views. Note. ed.
Young Matt's teachers and parents - even his father, who was an animator and director - tried to encourage the boy to devote his life to something else. They suggested that he go to college and get a more solid profession. In reality, Matt met only one teacher who truly inspired him to choose life path. “The teacher who taught me in the first grade saved the drawings I made in the lessons. She did keep them for many years. I was incredibly touched, you understand that she had hundreds of students over the years. Her name is Elizabeth Hoover. I named one of the Simpsons characters after her."
The disapproval of the elders did not discourage Matt, because deep down he knew what really inspired him.
“When we made up stories as kids and played with little dinosaurs and stuff like that, I knew I was going to do this for the rest of my life. I saw adults with briefcases walking to their offices and thought, “I can't do this. And that's the only thing I really want to do." There were other children around me who felt the same as me, but gradually they got away with it, they became more serious. I have always wanted to act and tell stories.
I understood that I was expected to move through the planned life stages: first school, then college, receiving a diploma, graduation, and - finally - successfully finding a good job. I knew it wasn't for me. I knew I was going to draw cartoons for the rest of my life.
I found friends who had the same interests at school. We spent our free time together, drawing comics, and then bringing them to school and showing them to each other. As time went on, we got older and more ambitious and started making videos. That was great. This served as partial compensation for the fact that we felt very uncomfortable in society. Instead of staying at home on weekends, we would go out and shoot videos. Instead of going to football matches on Friday nights, we went to the local university and watched underground movies.
I made a decision that I would live my mind. And by the way, I didn’t really hope that it would work. I imagined my more or less successful life something like this: during the day, a crappy job that I hate. Maybe it will be necessary to roll the tires back and forth at some tire warehouse. But during the breaks… It will be only my time. I will draw my cartoons.
However, things turned out completely differently. Matt moved to Los Angeles, where he eventually published the Life in Hell comic book series in L.A. Weekly and slowly began to make a name for himself. This led to what he got from the Fox Broadcasting Company 5
American television company owned by Fox Entertainment Group. One of the largest television companies in the world, the reason for the success of which was the popular series The Simpsons, Futurama, The X-Files, House M.D., Escape. Note. ed.
Proposal for the creation of short animation segments for The Tracey Ullman Show. While doing this job for Fox, he spontaneously and unexpectedly came up with The Simpsons. The show grew into a half-hour program, and Fox aired it every Sunday for nineteen years. In addition, films, comic books, toys, and countless other mementos have emerged from the transmission. In other words, a whole empire of pop culture has emerged.
However, none of this would have happened if Matt Groening had listened to those who told him that he should have a "real" career.
* * *
However, many successful people Still, they loved school, and not all of them studied poorly. Paul was still in high school and had a very good grades when he first appeared in the lecture hall of the University of Chicago. Then he had no idea that this university was one of the leading educational institutions world in the field of economics. When he came here, he knew only that the university was located next to his house. A few minutes later, Paul seemed to be “born again,” as he later put it in his article. “That day the lecture was devoted to the theory of Malthus 6
English economist, demographer and clergyman (1766–1834) The author of the theory that uncontrolled population growth should lead to starvation on earth. Note. ed.
That mankind will breed like rabbits until the population density per acre of land reduces wages to the subsistence level. At the same time, the increased death rate will become equal to the birth rate. These differential equations were so easy to understand that I erroneously suspected that I was overlooking some kind of trick.”
From that moment began the path of Paul Samuelson as a scientist-economist. It was this path, which Paul describes as "a real pleasure," that led him to the positions of professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and President of the International Economic Association. Paul has written hundreds of articles and several books (including a textbook on economic theory which became an all-time bestseller). He had a significant impact on public policy and in 1970 became the first American to receive Nobel Prize on economics.
Paul now recalls: “I was a precocious teenager, and I was always good at solving logic problems and IQ tests. Therefore, if the economy was created for me, then we can say that I was created for the economy. Never underestimate in a child's life the work that he himself perceives as a pleasant game. That is what is vital important discovery turns ordinary people who might never reach their potential into happy victors."
Three stories, one idea
Gillian Lynn, Matt Groening and Paul Samuelson are three different person with three various stories. And they are united by one, undoubtedly important idea: each of them has achieved high achievements and a record level of personal satisfaction, having discovered in himself a natural talent that coincides with the main life interest. I call these cases "epiphany stories" because they usually involve some sort of revelation that divides the world into "before" and "after." It was these insights that radically changed the lives of these people, showed them the path and goal, helped them achieve success in a way that nothing else could help.
These and other people described in my book have found a job that suits them best. They have found their element - a sphere in which what we love to do and what we are good at merge together. Our element is another designation of our potential. It manifests itself differently in each person, but the constituent components of the elements are universal.
Lynn, Groening and Samuelson have achieved a lot in their lives. And they are not the only ones who have succeeded. They realized in time what they like to do specifically - and they really do it. They have found their calling. But, unfortunately, my life experience tells me that most people still fail.
It is extremely important for each of us to find our calling both for our own well-being and success, and for the prosperity of our country, for the effectiveness of the entire educational system.
I sincerely believe that finding a vocation leads to impressive success and great satisfaction. I am not saying that in each of us lives a dancer, animator or Nobel laureate in the field of economics. Each of us has his own talents and interests, but the result from their implementation is the same - joy, recognition, harmony and satisfaction. Realizing this idea changes everything. Finding our calling is the best and perhaps the only guarantee of our true and lasting success.
Being in our element depends on discovering our individual talents and passions. Why don't people understand and see this? Perhaps one of the main reasons for this "blindness" is that most people have a very low idea of their natural abilities. This manifests itself in several "limitations".
The first limitation is due to our understanding of the set of their abilities. We are all born with tremendous powers of imagination, intellect, feelings, intuition, spirituality, and physical and sensory perception. As a rule, we use only a small part of these generous gifts and some are not used at all. Many people have not found their calling because they do not realize their own capabilities.
The second limitation is related to our understanding of how all these possibilities are interconnected into a single whole. Generally, we assume that our mind, body, feelings, and relationships with other people are independent of each other, as individual systems. Many people have not found their calling, because they did not understand the essence of their truly harmonious nature.
The third limitation lies in our perception of the extent to which we use our potential for growth and development. People tend to think that life develops in a linear fashion, that our abilities decrease with age and missed opportunities will never come again. Many people have not found their calling because they do not feel the reality of the constant potential for renewal given to us by nature.
This limited perception of one's abilities can be exacerbated over time by environment, culture, or one's own internal expectations. However, the main factor for each of us is education.
