One of the nicest things about taking a summer sabbatical (or siesta as my darling wife prefers to call it), is that I get to read books. Maybe I don’t read a bunch more when on vacation, but I do get to noodle with a book’s ideas more than I do when hard at work. The Element is a book I enjoyed thinking through.
It appears that I dog-eared about 50 pages of 300 in this book. That might be an unofficial record. It is surly an indication of a good read. To be honest, I was surprised it was such a good read. You see, the book appears at the beginning to be a book about education. And I must also admit that education is not a subject I relish.
The Element is not a philosophical treatise on education methods, though it does discuss why we in the first world might not be meeting our educational goals. Primarily the book is packed with interesting, unusual stories about people who found what they most loved to do and were best at achieving. The biographies are fantastic.
I was forced to recollect my own extremely mixed feelings about education. While talented and interested in schoolwork, my results were mostly mediocre. And I was truly unapologetic to my, justifiably exasperated, instructors. One doesn’t have to be a poor student to get something from these biographies. They are interesting and diverse. The stories cover good and not so good students.
The point being made in The Element is about finding resonance, or a relationship with an activity, vocation or art. Discovering an interest and a pursuit can meld into an exceptional life. And someday, maybe such lives wont be exceptional. The Element is a guide for those of us still looking for ways to find their own sweet spot in life. I think The Element may just have helped me get a bit closer.
- Kindly recommended by Doug Covey: @DougCovey
- The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything on Amazon