Finding your element summary

Have you ever felt pressured to live your life in a certain way? Society often encourages us to follow a certain linear plan. We're supposed to graduate high school at 18, enter university, and then become a professional person, get married and have children. This narrative may work for some people, but for many of us it can be limiting and steer us away from opportunities in which we might excel.

We often have to commit to forming this plan at a very young age. Teenagers are expected to enter a specialization in university and then base their career off that decision. This means that many young people commit to a general plan of their entire career when they've only just finished their childhoods.

Human intelligence is extremely vast, and every one of us is born with aptitudes for different skills – this is part of what makes each of us unique.

Although you were born with many aptitudes, your environment or culture may have prevented you from discovering them: if you've never been to the sea, you have no idea whether you have an aptitude for sailing.

If you ask people what's the best way to determine someone's intelligence, most would probably suggest giving them an IQ test or asking about their grades from school. But these standardized tests only measure only one kind of human intelligence: logical reasoning. In fact, there are many other ways to be intelligent that most schools don't value.

If you were intelligent in these other ways, your school probably did not support you.

Many things can hold us back from realizing our true potential. Often our environment prevents it, but sometimes we limit ourselves with our own attitude.

First off, you may have internalized a pessimistic attitude about your abilities. This feeling is often fostered by society. As we grow up, we're constantly encouraged to compete with each other – in schools and in our workplaces. This means you might have abandoned some talents because you felt you couldn't compete. For example, you might have shown promise as a guitar player, but abandoned it because you felt you would never be as good as Jimi Hendrix.

Having passions is an essential part of being human, and all people are passionate about something. If you feel like you don’t have any passions, it is probably because you haven’t discovered them yet.

When you're doing something that you feel passionate about, you should know it intuitively because you kind of “lose yourself” in it. This is why people often describe a change in their perception of time when they are doing something they are passionate about. Musicians often spend hours rehearsing or writing music without noticing the passing time. Ask yourself, what in your life makes you feel this way?

Most people would agree that happiness is very personal. Despite this seemingly obvious fact, we are constantly told by society that there are two correct ways to achieve happiness: wealth and immediate gratification. This can be very damaging and may prevent us from finding more meaningful ways to be happy.

First of all, we're constantly told that happiness is dependent on making more money. This is simply untrue. Depression rates are far higher in wealthier countries. Money can sometimes help you deal with a situation, but if you feel unfulfilled in life, having more money will not necessarily help.

Your passions are your own, but it’s often very beneficial to pursue them with other people. Finding people who share your passions can lead to new opportunities to fulfill your goals.

Let's say you're passionate about do-it-yourself electronics. You could benefit enormously by sharing ideas and working together with people from different areas of specialization within that field. The “Maker” community has sprung up for exactly this purpose, with its own magazine and conferences. Through these mediums, DIY enthusiasts are able to share ideas and advice to the benefit of everyone. When you work in a community of like-minded people, you'll find others whose ideas you can learn from. They can teach you new skills relevant to your goals and help you to better realize your ideas, and of course you can share your knowledge and help them in return.