School of Life Guide to Realizing Your Potential

The School of Life’s Guide to

Realising your Potential

© 2011 The School of Life’s Guide to Realising Your Potential

IntroductionThe School of Life’s Guide to


We all have dreams and ambitions that we haven’t realised, often because we don’t know where to start. The School of Life has designed this guide to help you express your passions and realise your potential in imaginative and constructive ways with a view to helping you bring your cherished idea or project to life.

We’ve pulled in advice from great thinkers and doers throughout history and given you ways to apply their insights to your own life through a series of practical exercises. We’ve also compiled a list of the best books to read for further inspiration as well as loads of other useful tips.

This is a resource that you can refer to for guidance as and when you need it. You don’t have to read it cover-to-cover in one sitting. You might choose instead to focus first on the issues that seem most important to you. Read a chapter before bed or complete an activity during your lunch break - whatever works best for you. It’s a space for you to think, so feel free to make it your own. And if it sparks thoughts or ideas that you’d like to share with us – and with others – tell us about it here: amexbeinspired.co.uk


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ContentsThe School of Life’s Guide to


oWhat’s your Story? 2

Sources of Inspiration 4

Facing Fears 5

Embracing Limitations 6

Money, Money, Money 8

Connecting with Others 10

Identifying Values 12

Cultivating Virtues 14

Freedom and Commitments 16

Taking Action 17

Bookshelf 18

Study Notes 20

Room for Thought 21

E


When contemplating how to realise your potential, one of the most difficult lessons to learn is that your story is not wholly your own. You did not choose its beginning, you won’t decide its end, and most of the details on the way will be shaped by other forces and random chances.

The place of our birth, the character of our parents, the worldview our upbringing instilled in us, our education, the chance meetings that made friends… how can these be shaped into a story that actually fulfils us?

The key to a life lived well is to know yourself. And in knowing yourself, you will be able to work with the flow of yourself, rather than against it. If you embrace your story, it will powerfully resource you, and you will be able to write far more of the chapters of your life than at first seemed possible. It’s not a process you can entirely control, though it is the source of everything that will feel most meaningful and true to you.

It is also called discovering your vocation. The interesting aspect of finding a vocation is that it feels like you are offering your service to a higher ideal, or becoming part of some tremendous tradition. Artists, scientists, explorers and parents all feel it (on the good days, at least!). After all, what does ‘vocation’ mean, but to be called. It’s as if you lose yourself in what you do, though in losing yourself, you discover yourself.

The process also often feels like waiting, reflects the great novelist, Philip Pullman. He calls it ‘fishing at night’. He says that to tell a good story, you have to attend to the powers that give shape to life. ‘Fish are not interested in any rationally-worked-out plans concocted far away on shore.’ The fact that it is fishing at night – not day – is also important. The night time is a period of darkness and disorientation. Are you worried about fulfilling your potential, feeling the anxiety and sense of being lost? Trust it, Pullman implies. For it is only out of the darkness, and the capacity to rest with the unknown, that the forces you don’t quite control might begin to work for you, and lead you towards the light.

What he is alluding to is the fact that your story, like any good story, originates in the unconscious. Pullman continues: ‘With every voyage you learn a little more about the bait these fish like; and you’re practised enough to wait for a twitch on the line and not snatch at it too soon.’ And there’s deep value in this active waiting. Be alert. Join the dots. Make sense of the signs. And then run with them.

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What’s your Story?

cont.


Hello my name is…

Activity: Imagine you are introducing yourself to strangers by describing three short vignettes from your life.

Write down the three incidents you would use.

What do they tell you about your story, about who you are, and who you might be?

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What’s your Story?


among your Family & Friends

in Entertainment & The Arts

in yourCommunity

in Popular Culture

in History

Who inspires

you?

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Sources of Inspiration

We all draw our inspiration from different sources and from all aspects of life. What is it that inspires you? You can share your inspirations with others: amexbeinspired.co.uk and on Twitter.com/amexbeinspired


The frightening thing about our fears is that they leave us never quite sure what we’re fearful of. Why were we terrified of making that speech at the wedding, when everyone in front of us was a friend? Why does the blank sheet of paper, awaiting the imprint of the writer’s pen, cause that same writer to freeze?

NIt’s not at all clear, and if it was, we could confront our fears, reason with them, and watch them dissolve. They don’t, but in their dark obscurity, grow all the stronger. ‘No passion,’ wrote Edmund Burke, ‘so robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.’

The analytical psychologist, Carl Jung, called it our ‘shadow’. It is those murky parts of ourselves – that lost half – which we’re not comfortable with, and that we attempt to bury as a result. For the introverted character, it is the fear of crowds that looms like a spectre, which is utterly bemusing to the extroverted character, who only loves performing for others. Conversely, for the extroverted character, it is the fear of sitting quietly in a still room alone with themselves that makes them panic, which is utterly bemusing to the introverted character, who loves spending time on their own.

Jung argued that the extraordinary thing about our shadowy fears is that if we can face them, we discover they are the source of extraordinary inspiration and invaluable vigour. This is the story behind a thousand reality TV shows, where individuals cook a meal, climb a mountain or teach a class. They never knew they had it in them. There were tears and terrors along the way. But with the right support, and a little courage, they’ve faced their fears, and faced them down.

It’s not so much that they’ve overcome their fears, though. Many actors still get stage fright. Most competitors are wired with nerves before the big race. Rather, they’ve

known their shadow and have recruited it to work with them, not against them. They can redeploy its energy. Instead of having only half of themselves available, they have access to the whole of themselves.

So the trick is not to try to reason your fears away. If they are real fears you won’t be able to do so. Rather, explore your fears, and get into them in a reasonably safe way. Do something or go somewhere that you’d normally find a little intimidating. You may find that a fear that once caused you to freeze can actually resource you.

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Facing Fears1234

What are you afraid of? Draw your shadow.

Name your fear. My fear is…


Why would the gods be jealous of we mortals, the ancient Greeks used to ask. After all, they have everything, as they sit sipping nectar in the Elysian fields. We, though, have to struggle, to fight, to admit failure in our lives. And yet, the poets tell us, they gaze down in envy. Why?

It’s because our limitations are actually the making of us. Working within the constraints of our mortal frames gives us moral weight. It’s easy for a god to be great. But human greatness is impressive because it arises against the odds.

This is a lesson that inspires Nicholas Nassim Taleb, the bestselling author of The Black Swan. The metaphor may be familiar. The black swan is the extreme, unexpected thing that will destroy all your certainties, that all swans are white.

So, the trick is to be able to live in ‘extremistan’, the real world in which uncertainties will catch you unawares and will expose you to your limitations. To put it another way, the key to wisdom is not attempting to control everything, which is like trying to overcome your limits. Believing you can is, in truth, an excess of pride or a craving for power.

And because it can never be achieved, it will leave you stuck in a rut. Instead, the trick is to recognise the thresholds of your knowledge, the constraints of your ignorance, and turn them to your advantage.

Taleb also calls it making an omelette with broken eggs. It’s the things that are imperfect that need to be embraced, as opposed to dreaming of a perfect world. Take artists, who embrace the physical limitations of their materials to produce masterpieces. Or composers who take on the limits inherent in the 12 notes of the scale over which musical instruments range – just 12 notes! – to produce sounds that moves us to tears.

They show that limitations are actually gifts. The apparently leaden strictures are creative gold. There could be no pots without clay, painting without oils, music without notes. So don’t lament your limitations. They are actually the key to your success.

A bird might imagine that it’d be easier to fly in an atmosphere without air. But it needs the friction and wind resistance to climb high into the sky. Similarly, that which feels like it would drag you down is, in truth, that which liberates you. Work out how to work it. Don’t fear the black swans. The gods will be jealous once more.

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Embracing Limitations


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Embracing Limitations

To gain a feel for how much can be done in spite of distinct constraints, try these exercises.

1. How many words can you make up using the letters from this word: CONSTRAINTS (Hint: there are, in fact, well over 300.)

2. How many uses can you make of a brick? (Some starters: blunt a knife, prop open a door, desk tidy (in the dent), paperweight, build a house, stub a toe, crush a beetle…)

3. See how many ways you can arrange just 6 of your books on the shelf. (Warning: there are over 720 combinations.)

6 B O O K S

6 B O O K S

O N S T R A I N T S C

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Valu

esWorth

Desire

Freed

om

Power

Money, or the lack of it, is perhaps the most commonly perceived barrier to achieving aims and goals. It’s the if-I-won-the-lottery complaint. My mortgage, my children, my pension, my pleasures demand of me the steady income I currently enjoy. Mortgaging all that for the sake of some fantasy is both foolhardy and impossible, practically speaking. Or so the argument inside our heads goes.

In truth, our relationship with money is more subtle, and was brilliantly analysed by the economist John Maynard Keynes. He developed the theories that helped put the world back together after the Second World War – roughly that governments should spend during periods of recession and save during periods of growth, so that the ups and downs of the economic cycle are smoothed out. But, no mean philosopher too, he was also fascinated by what money means to us.

In a word, it’s relationship. Money mediates our relationships. In terms of our interpersonal relationships, money is the medium of exchange whereby we transfer things of value to one another. Your bread, dear baker, will feed me, and I gladly exchange it for a few coins, which will buy something of value for you. Note that the coins of themselves are worthless. It is only insomuch as they facilitate our acquisition of things we want or need that they gain their worth.

Money doesn’t just oil the wheels of consumption. It mediates our relationship with the future too. If I have a few coins in my pocket, I know I’ll have lunch tomorrow. If I have a decent pension plan, I know I’ll be able to retire in comfort. Money is like grain in the barn, though it’s much more versatile. It is a store of protection against the adversities the future might throw at us. But note again, that this money only gains its worth should we need it to fend off such adversities. Otherwise it turns to dust, like the surplus grain in the barn.

In short, money is not the same thing as value. It is a means to an end and not an end in itself, though the risk is that we frequently forget that money is good only when it can be put to some good. Instead of seeing it as mediating our relationships, with others or our future, and thereby realising its worth, we fall into the delusions of having a relationship with money itself, as if a healthy bank balance is itself a fulfilment of our potential.

What matters is the use to which each person puts their wealth. But the confusion is hard to shake off, as it’s common in our culture. How many kids don’t take delight simply from the number of coins in their pockets? But shake it off, we must.

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Money, Money, Money


Valu

esWorth

Desire

Freed

om

Power

If money is of itself no good, it is also of itself not bad. It does enable us to acquire things of worth.The trick is to keep focused on what is of worth to you and, when it comes to realising your potential, be clear that is not money. It is the use to which you can put your financial resources. And you’d be surprised how far a little money can go in realising that goal. Personal enrichment is not the same as becoming more enriched as a person. To what better ends can you put that means called money?

The exercise below invites you to consider the ‘value for money’ of certain things in your life.

Start by making a list of the ten most significant things that you’ve acquired or done in the past three years. This might include a consumer purchase, a holiday, a course you enjoyed, or a memorable walk in nature.

Next, place two numbers by each item. The first number is from 1 to 10 and is based on economic cost where 1 is the lowest economic cost and 10 the highest.

Now add a second number, ranking your items from 1 to 10 in order of the value they hold for you in your life.

Plot these items on the blank graph below. An example of how one individual has plotted their information is provided. For them, their dog Bounce rates 9 in terms of value, and 1 in terms of economic cost. Their holiday in France represents 8 in terms of cost, and 2 in terms of value.

My 10 most significant things Economic Cost Life Value

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Car

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Money, Money, Money


You need others if you are to realise your potential. Even solo adventurers can’t walk to the South Pole or sail around the world entirely on their own. Behind them are teams of people providing them with support, know-how and inspiration. “No man is an island,” is a well-known saying from the poet, John Donne. Humans do not thrive when isolated from others. We often need someone with more experience or wisdom, like a good friend or mentor, to help guide us through life and make the right decisions. The concept of mentorship stretches all the way back to the Ancient Greeks. The term itself comes from a character called Mentor in Homer’s Odyssey. Furthermore the most famous Greek philosophers – Socrates, Aristole and Plato – are an example of the power of mentorship. Socrates taught Plato. Plato taught Aristotle. Aristotle taught Alexander the Great. Throughout history there are also examples of friendships that provide cases of mutual mentoring. Take for instance, the friendship between the Romantic poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth. Wordsworth wrote poetry and Coleridge threw his efforts into his philosophical work. The two inspired each other to greater goals for their art, and their energies combined were greater than the sum of their parts. A friend or mentor can open up new worlds. Another way to think about this, is that the people that can help you are found in the various communities of which you can be part. What communities have, in their people, are vibrant sources of customs and traditions, wisdom and rules. It is in communities that you can learn the skills, and gain access to the means, to achieve what you seek. They can also show you things about yourself that you simply never knew.

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Connecting with Others


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Connect the dots: Identify five people within your circle of friends and colleagues who might be helpful to you in taking your project or idea further.

Now look outside your existing network and identify five other people or groups you might reach out to for a new perspective. Arrange to email, call or meet with them. 1

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Connecting with Others


Values are the wellsprings for action. A concern for the poor is fired by a sense of injustice. A passion for the piano emerges from a conviction of its aesthetic worth. That which is meaningful, motivates. That which has significance, sustains. What you value is what you love to do.

It might also be called having integrity. Polonius makes it seem so simple. In Hamlet, Shakespeare has him say the now famous words to his son, Laertes. ‘This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.’

Here, then, would be a person with integrity – whole and undivided, embodying the moral weight of the admirable soul, because the person with integrity is someone who is above reproach. We may not agree with their actions. But if we know them to act honourably and with honesty, we accept them. They are people with values.

For the novelist Iris Murdoch, it is love that is the key issue. She understood that we humans are driven by our passions, though we can be driven to distraction, to apathy, to action, or to fulfilment. ‘Our life problem is one of the transformation of energy,’ she wrote, adding that the best catalyst for that transformation is values. They may stem from a love of nature, of beauty, of craft, of ecology, of pleasure, of community, of expression, of justice. But with this ‘painful realisation that something other than myself exists’, lives can be transformed.

Values might also be defined as those qualities that are ends in themselves. They are the things we call good. The obvious case in point are human beings themselves. Murdoch concurred. To treat human beings merely as means to some other end is to be involved in the practice more commonly known as slavery. Further, it’s not just the slave that is demeaned in such situations, never achieving their potential. The master too becomes tainted by their moral vacuity: no one can claim to find their fulfilment when it necessitates the degradation of others.

A third aspect. Something that is valuable is not necessarily useful, or at least, its use is not the prime reason for pursuing it; it’s utility may not be immediately obvious.

Consider the geometric shapes known as conic sections. They were studied for thousands of years, by mathematicians such as Pythagoras, for no reason other than the value of knowledge. The science of conic sections was an abstract, strictly useless science, though one that drove the passions of many over the centuries and years.

Then, suddenly, in the late seventeenth century, one Isaac Newton published his theory of universal gravitation. It turns out that the characteristics of conic sections are absolutely vital to it. Today, human beings completely depend on a fascination that for millennia seemed useless. Conic sections keep satellites in space, keep aircraft in the sky. ‘After the idea, there is plenty of time to learn the technology,’ reflected industrial designer James Dyson.

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Identifying Values

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Identifying Values

adventure

playfulness

creativity

empathy

daring

affluence

Skillfulness

beauty

variety

teamwork

JUSTICE

Activity:

‘To thine own self be true.’Shakespeare, Hamlet So you need to be clear about the values that inspire you. Put these values in order for yourself. Add others that occur to you.


irtues are those aspects of character, or habits of mind, or ways of operating, that lead to positive outcomes. To talk about virtue is to talk about the links between what you do, who you are, and a fulfilling, flourishing life. The list of virtues is a long one but it includes courage, wisdom, modesty, trust, sympathy, love, hope, generosity and self-control.

That said, the word ‘virtue’ is a tricky one in the modern world. The virtuous person sounds more like a prude than someone to emulate. But there is nothing prim or pompous about virtues. They are, in fact, entirely practical.

The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle is our man here. He defined virtues in a particular way that is very helpful when it comes to cultivating them. The virtue is found at the mid-point between two extremes. Take courage. It lies at the midpoint between cowardice and foolhardiness. The coward is the person who never takes any risks in life. The foolhardy character is one who doesn’t care about the risks, but just goes for it. The courageous person is the one who takes the measure of things and is able to act with a clear head and a brave heart.

Or think about generosity. It lies at the midpoint between wastefulness and stinginess. So, the generous person has the habit of being wise in their giving and responsible in their husbandry.

Or again, self-control. It’s neither overindulgent nor apathetic, but characterised by right judgement.

This analysis is useful because it offers a dynamic conception of the virtues required to realise your potential. You can, as it were, practice them. If on one occasion you go too far in one direction, then the next time, pull back a little, and assess whether that worked better.

In fact, the virtues are only discovered with practice, Aristotle believed. It’s like learning to ride a bike or to swim. The virtues are a kind of skillfulness. He called it practical intelligence. Further, and also like learning to ride a bike, once you’ve got it, you’ve probably got it for life.

Reasoning can help, like judging that you’ve achieved that mid-point. And learning from a master is very helpful, which is why it is so good to have role-models and heroes. They are exemplars in the virtues you value the most.

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Cultivating Virtues

©The School of Life 2011 Workbook How to Realise Your Potential

Reflect, on your list below and what this tells you about yourself, perhaps asking these questions:

(i) Do any of the lists surprise you?

(ii) Do you think your best friend would recognise you in these lists?

(iii) Are any of the virtues under the headings WITH EFFORT or NEVER ones you need to realise your potential?

(iv) Do any of your ALL THE TIME or OFTEN virtues actually hinder you in life?

(v) Which of the ones under SOMETIMES would you like to be able to move to OFTEN or ALL THE TIME?

(vi) Do you use the virtues under ALL THE TIME or OFTEN in your life?

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Cultivating Virtues

Activity: Below is a list of virtues we might need in life, according to a variety of philosophers.

accepting, accountable, ambitious, assertive, benevolent, brave, careful, caring, charitable, cautious, clean, committed, compassionate, confident, considerate, cooperative, courageous, courteous, creative, curious, defiant, dependable, detached, determined, devoted, diligent, discerning, discrete, disciplined, eloquent, empathic, enthusiastic, fair-minded, faithful, flexible, forbearing, forgiving, friendly, frugal, generous, gentle, grateful, helpful, honest, honourable, hopeful, humble, humorous, idealistic, impartial, industrious, joyful, kindly, loving, loyal, magnanimous, modest, obedient, open, orderly, patient, persevering, punctual, purposeful, reliable, resolute, resourceful, respectful, responsible, restrained, selfless, sensitive, sincere, spontaneous, straightforward, strong, tactful, thrifty, tolerant, tough, trusting, understanding, wise, zealous

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2All the time Often Sometimes With effort Never

List each of the virtues beneath the heading that seems appropriate to you. (If you find patience difficult, write it under WITH EFFORT, and so on.)


There’s an obvious, crucial and difficult move you have to make, if you are to realise your potential. The potential must become actual. What you want to do or be must become what you do or are.

Fundamentally, this is a question of freedom, which is to say that it’s one of the trickiest issues to negotiate today, for the very reason that we have so much of it.

It started in the classroom on the day when you were first asked, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ Your imagination kicked in and you had that delicious sense that the sky was the limit. Football player, actress, astronaut, brain surgeon. They were all possible. And one of the hardest lessons you’ve learnt since is that this childish dreaming is just wishful thinking. Chances are, you’re not any of them.

But a culture of high consumption is, in a way, one that insists we keep dreaming. You need never be stuck with what you have, a thousand advertisements tell us, for there are always new choices to be made. And more choice is equated with more freedom.

And yet, as Jean-Paul Sartre famously remarked, ‘we are condemned to be free’, condemned because that means we must make our own choices. That is so hard to do for the very reason that there are so many to make. African drums or classical guitar for your self-expression? Meditation or yoga for your wellbeing? Spearmint or peppermint for your toothpaste? Too much choice, too much freedom, is incapacitating.

To realise your potential you must commit. In truth, a deeper freedom is only realised when you’ve made a commitment. It’s like the painter who is wonderfully free with the brush only because years ago they committed to learn the ways of paint. Oddly, then, it’s not freedom that finally helps you to realise your potential, but commitment. You need some freedom to make a choice. But it’s not until you’ve made a choice that you can really live.

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Freedom and Commitments

A:The question is this:

To what are you to be committed?

Your answer is…

Q:


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Action springs from who you are, which is to say that if you vow to do something that it is completely against your character, then you are very unlikely to do it. So change must stem from a sense of personal experiment, excitement and exploration.

It’s about flirting with new possibilities for who you might be. It’s about discovering through doing. And less tends to be more. Trying out something relatively modest, discovering you enjoyed it and did it well, and then trying something more challenging, is far more likely to work than setting yourself up to climb Mount Everest first. It’s about learning to walk before you run.

It’s also good not to make bold commitments ahead of time. This might be called the New-Year-Resolution fallacy. Many smokers find it easier to quit by saying they won’t smoke today, rather than that they’ll never smoke again ever. Similarly, don’t feel you have to commit to a whole new way of life, but instead run an experimental test alongside the life you are currently leading. That might mean signing up for an evening class, volunteering for something new at work, visiting someone outside of your usual circle at the weekend. The extra-curricular can become your main line of work in time. But give it time.

Entrepreneur Richard Branson put it this way: ‘When people are put into positions slightly above what they would expect, they’re apt to excel.’ Note the word doing the work in that sentence, ‘slightly’. If you put yourself in a position way above what you’d expect, you’re apt to fail.

That said, and as the world famous businessman Ray Kroc notes: ‘Where there is no risk there can be no pride in achievement and consequently no happiness.’ So you need to be prepared to be bold in your realism. A good way of thinking about this is to be clear about what is adventurous for you. Or to put it the other way around, ask yourself what you do without a second thought that seems quite extraordinary to your friend. It might be writing hand-written letters, or taking your nephew to the playground on Saturdays. Then, ask what they do that seems beyond you – and ask yourself again, whether it can be so difficult.

But perhaps the most important thing is to do something. Don’t do nothing. The smallest step is still a step forward, whereas no step will take you nowhere. British Politician Douglas Hurd put it well: ‘Inertia can gain its own momentum.’

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Taking Action

TO DO LISTList actions – from small

steps to big leaps – which you will take to further an idea

or project.


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Book ShelfThis selection has been prescribed for you by

The School of Life’s Bibilotherapist

TH

E M

IND

’S E

YE O

liver Sa

cks

THE TALENT CODE

Daniel Coyle

The Liar steph

en fry

THE YEA

R O

F THE H

ARE

ARTO

PAA

SALIN

NA

Henderson the Rain K

ing Saul Bellow

How Can I Make A Difference Tim Drake

The G

uide R

K N

arayan

A H

ouse for Mister B

iswas

VS

Naipaul

Siddhartha Hermann Hesse

Read

The Mind’s Eye Oliver Sacks The neurologist and practising physician uses this book as an opportunity to dissect his own ‘face blindness’, as well as many tales of hugely intriguing brain malfunction in others. What makes the book fascinating and inspiring is his descriptions of the way that the brain compensates for these quirks, by deepening other areas of consciousness. Read this book to be inspired about the ways that you can overcome serious obstacles and live a richer and more fulfilling life.

The Talent Code by Daniel CoyleThis book draws on research to reveal that, far from being some abstract mystical power fixed at birth, ability really can be created and nurtured. It explains what is really going on when apparently unremarkable people suddenly make a major leap forward. Coyle travels the world to look at nine hotspots where phenomenal talent has been found, from baseball fields in the Caribbean to a classical music academy in New York. Coyle examines these communities to discover what they have in common, then explains their secrets, showing the reader ways that he or she can increase their own performance in their chosen field.

The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything by Ken Robinson with Lou ArnicaThe creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson explains in this book how we are all born with vast capacity for creativity and talent, but we frequently ignore it or dismiss it as we grow older. He takes many real life examples of people who have brought together their passion and their talent and made it their life’s work, inspiring you to do the same.

The Confident Creative by Cat BennettThrough the practise of drawing, Cat Bennett shows you how you can unblock creativity and increase confidence. Bringing in various meditative techniques drawn from yoga and focus-based mindfulness, the author reveals new ways to connect your mind with your body, and to find your own space in the practise of drawing. This book is not just for artists, but for anyone who can pick up a pencil.

The Year of the Hare by Arto PaasalinnaA journalist goes out one night in his car, and accidentally hits a hare. He then takes it travelling with him for a year… starting off in Finland, Paasalinna’s native country, he begins to truly live to the full. His adventures take him through the wilderness where he meets many intriguing examples of humanity, and he fulfils a human ideal of someone who

seems to break the bounds of possibility, in a way that we can all relate to.

The Guide by R K NarayanThis is a lovely, simply told story about a man who starts his working life as a tourist guide at a train station in Malgudi, India, but then tries many other occupations before finding his unexpected destiny as a spiritual guide. It’s a tale of love, prison, loss and rediscovery of self, with a very surprising ending which will have you hooked on the characters and leave you feeling incredibly positive.

Henderson the Rain King by Saul BellowThis is a brilliant book for people needing to embark on new ventures in life. Henderson is a very wealthy man in his fifties, who feels a void at the heart of his life. He goes to Africa to find meaning and inadvertently becomes a god-like figure to the tribe he tries to help by ridding their well of frogs. His good deed backfires, and his success is ambiguous, but the novel is overwhelmingly optimistic, helping the reader to see new directions and find deeper understanding.

A House for Mister Biswasby VS NaipaulThis epic book is imbued with a great sense of humour and is full of fabulous descriptions of nature in Trinidad. The book explores notions of identity, ambition and material success, centering around one man’s aspirations to be a person of substance; it speaks to all cultures about feelings of belonging and validity, and of how we humans inhabit our landscape. This book will make you think about your place in the world, and will introduce you to new aspects of identity.

How Can I Make A Difference by Tim DrakeFinding the “golden thread of purpose” in your life is what Drake helps you to aim for, and this book is readable, well researched and inspiring. On a similar theme to this book, Creating A Life Worth Living by Carol Lloyd is a book that explores the point of working, and how to work to fulfil your creative potential. Even if you are not overtly creative, this book shows you how to turn your innate talents and passions into your lifestyle and work.

Siddhartha by Hermann HesseThis is one of those books that if you read when you are twenty it may well convert you to Buddhism, or at least make you think long and hard about our material culture. It is still a book that has a lot to say about the individual path we take through the world, what really

The Element:How finding your passion changes everything

Ken Robinson with Lou Arnica


WHAT IS THE WHAT DAVE EGGERS

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Book ShelfThis selection has been prescribed for you by

The School of Life’s Bibilotherapist

the passion Jeanette Winterson

Miss G

arnet’s Angel Salley V

ickers

Th

e A

lch

em

ist P

aulo C

oehlo

The M

ap of Love Ah

daf Soueif

MIRACLES OF LIFE J.G. Ballard

Seven Pillars

of Wisdom

t.e. lawrence

matters in life, where and why you are going where you are going. It’s not going to provide the answers, but it will ask you lots of questions about yourself and your own journey through life…

The Artists Way by Julia CameronThis is a book that unleashes your creative flow and shows you new ways to approach difficult issues in life and art. It’s a book that appeals to artists and non-artists, as it allows you to try out new media, experiment with ideas, and gradually to increase confidence in your abilities.

The Alchemist by Paulo CoehloThis fable-like tale is a book that inspires you to trust in your instincts, and to allow the universe to aid you in your desires. “If you want something enough, the universe will conspire to help you achieve it” is the message of the book. The story takes a young shepherd from his native home in search of treasure that he has been promised he will find in a vision. He has many adventures, and eventually finds the treasure where he least expects it. The simplicity of the writing makes the book easy to read and many people have found it immensely inspiring.

Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Errorby Kathryn SchulzThis is a book to remind you that mistakes can be the most productive event in the history of evolution, science, and even your

life, and being wrong is often remarkably positive as a catalyst. Kathryn Schulz writes cleverly, wittily and with many a good tale, and reading this book will show you that fulfilling your potential sometimes comes as much from the things you’ve done wrong in your life, to the things you’ve done right.

To Kill a Mockingbirdby Harper LeeA story about racial prejudice told through the eyes of the six year old Scout. Her father, Atticus Finch, is an attorney who is called upon to defend a black man accused of raping a white woman. The novel hinges around notions of justice: from justice for the wrongly accused black man, to justice for the mysterious Boo Radley who is mocked by the neighourhood for being a recluse. Scout learns from her father moral lessons that equip her for living.

The Map of Loveby Ahdaf SoueifThis book offers a parallel narrative, slicing back and forth between British colonial Egypt and the Egypt of the 1990’s. It is illuminating for its historical revelations and is gripping as a tale of love between two men and two women.

Miracles of Life by J.G. BallardJ.G. Ballard is a brilliant writer who has fictionalised most of his life in his novels, from Empire of the Sun to The Drowned World. This book describes his life in more literal

terms. The ‘miracles’ referred to in the title are his children, and one of the remarkable things about Ballard is how he brought them up as a single father after the sudden death of his wife. Ballard is immensely inspiring both as a writer and a human.

The Passionby Jeanette WintersonHenri is a simple farm boy who has joined the army during the Napoleonic wars. He gets a job as a cook and eventually becomes the personal chef to his idol, Napoleon. Henri is unlucky enough to fight in Napoleon’s brutal Russian campaign. In Russia Henri meets Villenelle, a young woman from Venice with webbed feet, whose husband sold her to the french army as a prostitute; also Partick, a priest excommunicated for watching young women undress. Together these three desert the army and embark on a journey across Europe to return home. But when the journey is over they must confront problems from their past. This is a wonderfully romantic book which fills you with passion for life.

What is the Whatby Dave EggersThis “autobiography” of Valentino Achak Deng tells the story of the second Sudanese Civil war, in which Achak’s family was wiped out by Arab militia. Achak’s Odyssey is a carnage laden true story that holds you gripped hoping desperately for a happy conclusion. Deng’s humour and wisdom shine through Eggers

prose. The story starts with his life in Atlanta, far from his peaceful beginnings in Sudan, when he asked his father, ‘What is the what?’ Find out by reading this book.

Online

psfk.comNew York City-based trends research and innovation company publishing a daily news site with details of inspiring trends research.

springwise.com Publicises new business ideas and entrepreneurial ventures.

dolectures.comAnnual lectures aiming to encourage you to “find your cause to fight for, your company to go start, your invention to invent, your book to write.”

designmind.frogdesign.comProvides the design and innovation community with perspectives on industry trends, emerging technologies, and global consumer culture. lateralaction.com/articles/social-networks-for-creativesDetails of ten top social media sites for creative people.

pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/socialentrepreneurs.htmlHighlights the work of social entrepreneurs seeking to bring about change around the world.

TH

E A

RT

ISTS W

AY Julia C

ameron

Being W

rong:A

dventures in the Margins of Error

Katherine Shulz

TO

KILL A

MO

CK

ING

BIRD Harper Lee

The Death of Ivan Ilyich Leo Tolstoy


List what can resource you – your

past experiences, your character

strengths, your education, your

family and friends.

Be prepared to wait. Sometimes,

life is just a question of good

timing. And sometimes you have to struggle for a while before something good can emerge.

Read an inspiring story, but not

just to feel good. Rather, ask yourself what parts of the story

you could imitate in your own life.

Have you reached that point in life when it’s time to stop worrying about making money, and

time to start spending it to help yourself, or others?

Have you been living according to your values or according to the values of someone else? Values are sources of energy. But they need to be our own.

Face your fears, don’t leave them

hanging around, fretting. They may open up a part of yourself that has been buried, and can make you more complete.

You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs. So what are the pieces of your life that

you can whip up together, and make into something nourishing and whole?

Stop dreaming and start making some commitments. There’s no embarking on a journey without taking a first step. It’s an old

truth, and true.

What community of people, what online advisors, can you tap into to take you to a new level

– or just to provide you with some tips and suggestions?

Who is the unlikely friend you have, the one who makes you feel

a little bit uncomfortable, but

who might help you to be a bit different too?

Assess your virtues, which is to say, describe your habits of mind, the features of your character. As to your weaknesses, describe them too. Can they be improved upon?

Think of some experiments, some

small actions that you can explore and try out. And then, go with the ones that worked, or even better, the ones you enjoyed.

Don’t get stuck in self-delusion.

Are you asking yourself to be something you just can’t be, to

do something you just can’t do?

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Study Notes


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Room for Thought

Use this space to jot down ideas and thoughts.


At The School of Life we come up with good ideas for everyday living. Some of the brightest minds in the world run our classes, meals, secular sermons, weekends and one-to-ones. Find out more at theschooloflife.com

American Express is a global services company, providing customers with access to products, insights and experiences that enrich lives and build business success. Learn more at: americanexpress.co.uk/potential

American Express has created Amex Be Inspired: a campaign which gives people the opportunity to share and celebrate the things that inspired them in support of The Prince’s Trust, enabling people across the county to give something back to the community and help vulnerable young people realise their potential. For more information or to get involved and share an inspiration visit: amexbeinspired.co.uk

Mark Vernon is a faculty member of The School of Life and author of this guide. As a writer, broadcaster, teacher, journalist and former priest, he is also the author of numerous books including The Philosophy of Friendship, Plato’s Podcasts and The Good Life: 30 Steps for Perfecting the Art of Living. Read his blog at markvernon.com

Ella Berthoud is The School of Life’s Bibliotherapist. In addition to running our individual reading consultation service, she regularly appears at high-profile literary festivals and runs reading weekends around Britain and abroad. To find out more about bibliotherapy or to book a session please go to: theschooloflife.com/bibliotherapy

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School of Life Guide to Realizing Your Potential