The Element

The Element Plot Summary

Introduction

The first time Sarah stood on stage at age nine, something magical happened. Normally shy and reserved, she suddenly felt at home under the spotlight, her voice clear and confident as she delivered her lines in the school play. In that moment, something awakened within her—a sense of purpose and belonging that she'd never experienced before. Her teacher noticed this transformation too, and encouraged Sarah to pursue acting further. Fast forward twenty years, and Sarah now runs a successful theater company that has changed the lives of countless young people. This story illustrates what happens when someone discovers their Element—that sweet spot where natural talent meets personal passion. It's the place where we feel most ourselves, most inspired, and most alive. Finding your Element isn't just about pursuing hobbies or careers that make you happy, though that's certainly part of it. It's about discovering your authentic self and living a life that honors your unique gifts. In this exploration, we'll encounter people from all walks of life who found their Element in unexpected ways. Their journeys reveal common patterns and principles that anyone can apply, regardless of age, background, or circumstances. The insights shared here offer pathways to self-discovery that can transform not just how you work, but how you experience every moment of your life.

Chapter 1: The Spark of Recognition: Discovering Your Natural Talents

Gillian was only eight years old when her school sent a troubling letter to her parents. Her teachers believed she had a learning disorder. She couldn't sit still, her homework was always late, and she consistently disrupted the class. Today, she might have been diagnosed with ADHD, but this was the 1930s. Concerned, Gillian's mother took her to a psychologist, dressing her in her best clothes and sternly warning her to behave. The psychologist spoke with Gillian's mother for over twenty minutes while Gillian sat quietly, trying not to fidget. Then, before leaving the room, the psychologist turned on a radio. Once alone with Gillian's mother in the hallway, he pointed through the window: "Just watch what she does." Inside, Gillian had immediately risen to her feet and begun moving gracefully to the music, completely absorbed in her own world of rhythm and expression. "Mrs. Lynne," the psychologist said, "Gillian isn't sick; she's a dancer. Take her to a dance school." Her mother did exactly that. Gillian thrived in this new environment, surrounded by "people like me" who couldn't sit still. She practiced relentlessly and eventually auditioned for the Royal Ballet School in London. She became a soloist with the Royal Ballet Company and later formed her own musical theater company. This girl, once considered problematic in school, grew up to be Gillian Lynne, the choreographer of Cats and The Phantom of the Opera, bringing joy to millions and creating a legacy of artistic brilliance. Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, shares a similar story. As a child, he was always drawing—often during classes when he should have been paying attention. His teachers noticed his artistic talent, though Matt himself was surprised by their praise. "I would do tons of paintings until they finally realized I was using up so much paper that they stopped me," he recalls. Despite encouragement to pursue more "practical" careers, Matt never lost his passion for creating characters and stories. These stories highlight a fundamental truth about human potential: our natural talents often reveal themselves early in life, sometimes in ways that traditional educational settings fail to recognize or value. The spark of recognition can come from within—that feeling of being completely absorbed in an activity—or from someone else who sees what we cannot yet see in ourselves. Finding your Element begins with this recognition, this moment of clarity when you realize, "This is who I am meant to be." It requires paying attention to those activities that energize rather than deplete you, and being open to the possibility that your greatest gifts may lie in areas you've been taught to dismiss or devalue.

Chapter 2: Breaking Through Barriers: Overcoming Constraints to Passion

Paulo Coelho, author of the international bestseller The Alchemist, faced extraordinary opposition to his creative aspirations. When he expressed interest in becoming a writer as a teenager, his parents were so concerned about this "impractical" career choice that they had him committed to a psychiatric institution. Three times they subjected him to this treatment, including electroshock therapy, believing they were helping him abandon his unrealistic dreams in favor of a sensible profession like law. Despite this extreme form of opposition, Coelho persisted in his passion for writing. Years later, his novel The Alchemist would sell over 40 million copies worldwide and be translated into more than 60 languages, making him the best-selling Portuguese language writer in history. His creative reach extends far beyond books to television, newspapers, and even rock music lyrics. Chuck Close, one of America's most acclaimed artists, faced different but equally daunting barriers. As a child, he struggled with dyslexia (undiagnosed at the time), physical disabilities that made sports impossible, and a series of family tragedies. His father died when he was eleven, his mother developed breast cancer, and the family lost their home due to medical bills. Yet through it all, art became his refuge and strength. "I think early on my art ability was something that separated me from everybody else," Close said. "It was an area in which I felt competent." He developed innovative techniques to create massive photorealistic portraits that now hang in the world's finest museums. Then, at the height of his career, a blood clot in his spinal column left him quadriplegic. Unable to hold a paintbrush, Close might have abandoned art altogether. Instead, he discovered he could hold a brush with his teeth and eventually regained enough movement in his upper arm to develop an entirely new style of painting—creating mosaics of small, colorful squares that form powerful images when viewed from a distance. The barriers to finding your Element take many forms—physical limitations, family expectations, societal pressures, or internal fears. Paulo Coelho's parents genuinely believed they were protecting him from a life of poverty and disappointment. Chuck Close could have accepted his physical limitations as insurmountable obstacles. Instead, both found ways to persist, adapt, and ultimately thrive. What distinguishes those who break through barriers is not an absence of fear or doubt, but a commitment to their authentic selves that transcends these emotions. They develop what psychologist Susan Jeffers calls the ability to "feel the fear and do it anyway." The journey to your Element often requires pushing against the constraints of conventional wisdom, other people's expectations, and sometimes even your own limiting beliefs about what's possible.

Chapter 3: The Mentors' Gift: How Others Guide Our Journeys

When Ken Robinson was ten years old, attending a special school for children with physical disabilities, a visitor appeared in his classroom one day. This well-dressed man with a kind face and educated voice observed the students briefly before leaving. Soon after, Ken was called to the headmaster's office where he met the visitor—Charles Strafford, a distinguished school inspector. After a short conversation and subsequent testing, Strafford recognized something in young Ken that others had missed. He recommended that the school move Ken to a more challenging class and prepare him for the eleven-plus examination—a test that determined whether students would attend academic grammar schools or vocational secondary schools. With the guidance of a demanding teacher named Miss York, Ken studied intensely and passed the exam, becoming the first in his family to do so and the only student from his school that year. Charles Strafford became a close friend of Ken's family and a window into a different world. Through hands-on guidance, he facilitated Ken's journey from special education to a lifelong passion for educational reform. Strafford was more than just a helpful adult; he was a true mentor who saw potential where others saw only limitations. Ray Charles, the legendary musician, found his mentor in Wiley Pittman, who owned a café next door to Ray's childhood home. Three-year-old Ray was fascinated by Pittman's piano playing. "I would stop playing as a child, I didn't care who was out there in the yard, my buddies or whoever, I would leave them and go inside and sit by him and listen to him play," Charles recalled. Instead of shooing the boy away, Pittman began teaching him to play melodies with one finger. "He knew in his heart, 'this kid loves music so much, I'm going to do whatever I can to help him learn how to play,'" Charles said. "He really turned me on to music." This early mentorship planted seeds that would later bloom into Ray Charles' groundbreaking musical career. Mentors serve several crucial functions on the path to finding your Element. First, they recognize abilities that you might not see in yourself. Charles Strafford detected Ken's academic potential despite his placement in a special school. Second, mentors provide encouragement when self-doubt creeps in, as Wiley Pittman did for young Ray Charles. Third, they facilitate growth by offering specific knowledge, techniques, and opportunities. Finally, they stretch you beyond your perceived limitations, challenging you to reach higher than you might have believed possible. The Element often reveals itself through these transformative relationships. Mentors don't simply teach skills; they illuminate paths, reflecting back to us our true capabilities and helping us navigate toward our highest potential. Their gift isn't just expertise—it's the profound belief in who we can become before we ourselves can see it.

Chapter 4: In the Zone: Where Time Stands Still

Ewa Laurance first encountered billiards when she was fourteen, following her older brother to a poolroom in Sweden. "I remember, the minute I walked in, I reacted to it right away," she recalls. "I loved the whole thing—this dark room with lights over each table and the clicking of the balls. I just thought it was mesmerizing right off the bat." She was immediately captivated by the skill displayed by the players, especially one who seemed to run ball after ball, strategically positioning the cue ball for each subsequent shot. "It was their knowledge and skill that really amazed me," she says. From that moment on, Ewa knew she wanted to dedicate her life to billiards. Her parents supported her unusual passion, allowing her to practice six to ten hours daily. At sixteen, she won the Swedish championship, and at seventeen, the first European Women's Championship. Now known as "the Striking Viking," Ewa has been ranked number one in the world and won both European and U.S. national championships. When she plays, she experiences something remarkable: "You're almost unconscious to what's going on around you. It's literally the most peculiar feeling. It's like being in a tunnel but you don't see anything else. You just see what you're doing. Time changes. Somebody could ask you how long you've been doing it and you could have said twenty minutes but it was actually nine hours." Aaron Sorkin, the acclaimed writer of A Few Good Men, The West Wing, and numerous other successful films and television shows, describes a similar experience when writing. "When it's going well, I feel completely lost in the process," he says. His work becomes physical—he paces, acts out all the parts, and sometimes finds himself "doing laps around my house, way out in front of where I type. In other words, I've been writing without writing." This state of total immersion—what psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls "flow" and athletes call "being in the zone"—is a hallmark of the Element. It's characterized by complete absorption in what you're doing, a merging of action and awareness where self-consciousness disappears and time seems to transform. In this state, people typically perform at their peak while paradoxically feeling that their actions are almost effortless. What's particularly fascinating about this experience is that it's not simply enjoyable—it's energizing. Activities we love fill us with energy even when we're physically exhausted, while activities we don't enjoy can drain us in minutes, even at our physical peak. When in the zone, people tap into a primal source of energy, becoming "more alive" in the process. This is why finding your Element isn't just about happiness or fulfillment—it's about accessing a state of being where you are your most authentic, vibrant self.

Chapter 5: Finding Your Tribe: The Power of Community

Meg Ryan, the actress known for films like When Harry Met Sally... and Sleepless in Seattle, was terrified of public speaking as a child. In eighth grade, when she had to give a valedictorian speech, she froze completely at the podium. Her mother had to come up and lead her back to her seat. How, then, did this shy girl become one of Hollywood's most accomplished actresses? The answer lies partly in her discovery of a tribe—a community of people who shared her passion and helped cultivate her talents. While studying journalism in college, Meg took a job in commercials to help pay tuition. This led to a role in the soap opera As the World Turns. "I found the world of actors fascinating," she told me. "I was around hilarious people. The job was like being in this nutty extended family." Later, after graduating from college, she met the acting teacher Peggy Fury. "Peggy started talking to me about the art and craft of acting and what being an artist meant to her," Meg recalls. "I was surrounded by people who worked from really deep down in themselves and were interested in the human condition and the idea of bringing writing to life." She had found her tribe—a group that saw the world as she did, who allowed her to feel most natural, who affirmed her talents and inspired her to be her best. Don Lipski, now one of America's most acclaimed sculptors, had a similar experience when he went to graduate school at the Cranbrook Art Institute. Having studied business and then economics in college, he had only taken a few art classes as electives. At Cranbrook, he suddenly found himself surrounded by serious art students. "For the first time I was around a big body of people who were very serious, knowledgeable, and committed to making their artwork, and it was fantastic for me," he says. "I went to all the critiques... I spent a lot of time visiting with other students in their studios absorbing what everybody was doing." Finding your tribe brings three powerful dynamics: validation, inspiration, and the alchemy of synergy. When you connect with people who share your passions, they affirm that your interests matter and that you're not alone in pursuing them. They inspire you by showing what's possible in your field and challenging you to raise your own standards. And when you collaborate with them, you can achieve things together that none of you could accomplish individually. This is what happened when Miles Davis gathered John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Bill Evans, and other extraordinary musicians to record Kind of Blue in 1959. With minimal preparation—just a few scales sketched out hours before recording—they created what would become the best-selling jazz album of all time. Each musician brought unique talents and sensibilities, and in the crucible of those recording sessions, they produced something greater than the sum of their individual contributions. Finding your tribe doesn't mean losing your individuality. Rather, it means discovering the community where your individuality can flourish alongside others who understand and value what makes you unique.

Chapter 6: Never Too Late: Transformation at Any Age

Susan Jeffers, author of the bestselling book Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway®, didn't begin her writing career until she was well into her forties. After raising two children and completing a doctorate in psychology, she became executive director of the Floating Hospital in New York City. Despite professional success, she felt something was missing and began a spiritual journey, attending workshops and studying Eastern philosophies. One day, following her intuition, she visited the New School for Social Research. Without any preparation, she found herself telling an administrator, "I'm here to teach a course about fear." Remarkably, the administrator had been searching for someone to teach exactly that subject, and the catalog deadline was that very day. Susan quickly wrote a course title—"Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway"—and a brief description. As she taught the twelve-week course, Susan realized how much she had learned about overcoming fear. She decided to write a book based on the course, but faced numerous rejections—one publisher even wrote, "Lady Di could be bicycling nude down the street giving this book away, and no one would read it!" After putting the manuscript aside for years, Susan eventually found a publisher who believed in her work. Today, Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway® has sold millions of copies in over 100 countries and been translated into more than 35 languages. Harriet Doerr offers another inspiring example of late-blooming talent. After raising her family, she returned to college at age 65 to complete a degree in history. Creative writing courses awakened her dormant literary skills, and at 73, she published her first novel, Stones for Ibarra, which won the National Book Award. Julia Child, who revolutionized American home cooking, worked as an advertising copywriter and government employee before discovering French cuisine in her mid-thirties. She published her groundbreaking cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking when she was nearly 50. Paul Potts was a mobile phone salesman with shattered dreams of an opera career until, at 36, he auditioned for Britain's Got Talent and stunned the world with his magnificent voice. These stories challenge the common belief that if you haven't found your Element by a certain age, the opportunity has passed. Life expectancy has more than doubled in the past century. Nearly nine in ten Americans between 65 and 74 report living disability-free. Many older people have greater financial stability than previous generations. With what some call a "second middle age," people now have additional decades to explore new passions and develop latent talents. Human lives are not linear but cyclical, with different capacities expressing themselves more strongly at different times. While certain physical abilities may diminish with age, others—like wisdom, judgment, and creative insight—often deepen. As neurobiologist Gerald Fischbach has shown, we retain the overwhelming majority of our brain cells throughout our lives, and research indicates that we continue building neural pathways as we age. The answer to "Is it too late for me to find my Element?" is simply: No. Your capacity to discover new passions and talents remains vibrant throughout your life—sometimes even more so as you gain the wisdom to recognize what truly matters.

Chapter 7: Beyond Work: Creating a Life in Your Element

Gabriel Trop is an accomplished academic scholar with a Ph.D. in German literature from Berkeley. Yet when you ask him what matters most in his life, he'll tell you about his passion for playing the cello. "If I were to lose the use of my hands," he says, "my life would be over." Gabriel discovered the cello almost accidentally in high school, when his music teacher suggested he try an instrument from the school's storeroom. He chose the cello simply because a friend played it, but quickly fell in love with its shape, size, and sonorous sound. Within a year, he was the principal cellist in the school orchestra. Eventually, Gabriel had to choose between music and academics as his primary focus. After careful consideration, he chose German literature because it allowed him to continue playing cello intensively, whereas a professional music career would have left little time for literary pursuits. Today, he plays for hours each day and continues to perform, recently playing a cello concerto with the University of California Berkeley Symphony Orchestra. To call this a hobby, he says, would be ridiculous—music is elemental in his life. In the truest sense of the word, Gabriel is an amateur musician—someone who pursues an activity for the love of it rather than for financial gain. The word amateur derives from the Latin amator, meaning "lover" or "devoted friend." True amateurs often perform at professional levels but choose not to make their living that way. This phenomenon is increasingly common. Charles Leadbeater and Paul Miller call it the "Pro-Am Revolution"—the rise of a new social hybrid of professional-amateurs who pursue their passions outside the workplace with an energy and dedication rarely given to leisure activities. Arthur C. Clarke, best known as a science fiction writer, made his most lasting contribution as an amateur when he proposed using satellites in geostationary orbit for global communications—an idea scientists initially dismissed as fantasy. The hedge fund executives who form rock bands for charity concerts, the car salesman who takes breathtaking surfing photographs for magazines, and the management professor who wins championship dance competitions all represent this integration of passionate pursuit with everyday life. For them, recreation—literally "re-creating" themselves—provides balance and fulfillment beyond what their careers alone can offer. Suzanne Peterson, a management professor and consultant, discovered competitive ballroom dancing in her twenties while in graduate school. "I would literally practice up to two hours in my head totally uninterrupted," she says of her mental rehearsals during business trips. "I would feel the music. I would feel the emotions." The contrast between her professional and dancing personas creates a complementary wholeness: "The business side is power and confidence... And the dancing is vulnerability and sensuality, everything soft." Finding your Element doesn't necessarily mean changing careers or abandoning responsibilities. It means creating space in your life for the activities that make you feel most authentically yourself. Whether you pursue your passion professionally or as an amateur, the key is connecting with what energizes and fulfills you. As Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wisely noted, "If you want to change the world, who do you begin with, yourself or others? I believe if we begin with ourselves and do the things that we need to do and become the best person we can be, we have a much better chance of changing the world for the better."

Summary

The stories shared throughout these pages reveal a powerful truth about human potential: we all possess unique talents and passions waiting to be discovered and developed. Whether it's Gillian Lynne finding her calling in dance after being labeled a problem child, Chuck Close reinventing his artistic approach after becoming quadriplegic, or Susan Jeffers beginning her writing career in her forties, these journeys demonstrate that the Element—that intersection of natural aptitude and personal passion—can be found at any age and under any circumstances. The path to your Element often involves recognizing innate talents that traditional systems may overlook, breaking through personal and social barriers, finding mentors who see your potential, experiencing the transcendent state of being "in the zone," connecting with a tribe that shares your passion, and understanding that it's never too late to discover new capabilities. Perhaps most importantly, finding your Element doesn't necessarily require dramatic life changes—it can be integrated into your existing life, bringing fulfillment and energy to everything else you do. The ultimate insight these stories offer is that human potential is not fixed but fluid, not singular but diverse, not determined by circumstances but by our willingness to recognize and nurture our authentic gifts. In a world of unprecedented change and challenge, discovering your Element isn't just a path to personal fulfillment—it's essential to creating a life of meaning and purpose.

About Author

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Ken Robinson

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.Sir Ken Robinson is an internationally recognized leader in the development of innovation and human resources. He has worked with national governments in Europe and Asia, with international agencies, Fortune 500 companies, national and state education systems, non-profit corporations and some of the world’s leading cultural organizations. They include the Royal Shakespeare Company, Sir Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, the Royal Ballet, the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, the European Commission, UNESCO, the Council of Europe, the J Paul Getty Trust and the Education Commission of the States. From 1989 - 2001, he was Professor of Arts Education at the University of Warwick.

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