Heroes Journey is about you coming home to yourself
Yesterday I was listening to Sir Ken Robinsons talk about Finding your Element. Robinson also wrote a book named The Element, and I recommend you listen and read about The Element because so much valuable wisdom is in it. If you’ve been following me on social media, read my Newsletter, listened to me as guest in different takeovers, podcasts and Circles or just following me here on my webside, you already know that very early in my life I realised the Educational System is deeply dysfunctional – in fact I believe a huge cause to all the disillusioned humanity we see in the world today is caused by dysfunctional public systems e.g. educational, health and economic systems etc. My research area have been for over 25 years – and still is – the Educational System, and at the moment the paradigm is shifting and thereby so is the Educational System. We’re moving from an old paradigm build on industrial thinking were people is valued as “products”, “consumers” etc and as such “replaceable”. What I noticed was a call for human ressources on different system levels (e.g. institutions) at the same time. What we’re experiencing in the society today is a decline in human ressources – at least in what the old paradigm defines as human ressources, and naturally the effect is a need for ressources. It’s like in nature; if you create a dysfunctional environment the individuals in this environment will decline.
Let me give you an example from Sir Ken Robinsons book The Element: ” (…) young children are wonderfully confident in their own imaginations. Most of us lose this confidence as we grow up. Ask a class of first graders which of them thinks they’re creative and they’ll all put their hands up. Ask a group of college seniors this same question and most of them won’t. I believe passionately that we are all born with tremendous natural capacities, and that we louse touch with many of them as we spend more time in the world. Ironically, one of the main reasons this happens is education. The result is that too many people never connect with their true talents and therefore don’t know what they¨’re capable of achieving. In that sense, they don’t know who they really are.” (Robinson, 2009, Penguin Books). I’m not talking about it’s wrong being disillusioned once a while – like if you know the beautiful story about The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry – it’s basically the heroes journey, a little prince – as humans always do – searching for meaning, having conflict and crises etc. What I’m talking about as well as Sir Ken Robinson is talking about is the problem in the majority blindly obey the same conventional routes to success. The problem is the imperative – and that is the main reason to the problem in the educational system – there is no “one fits all” to succes. We’re all unique creative humans and as such being in The Element is being true to your talent and thereby your authentic self. You surely feels the difference; being in your Element feels like being in flow with your passion, your natural ressource and the opposite following “the one fits all” to succes feels like being alienated.
Be true to yourself – not everyone understands your Element and your journey
As I was writing this blogpost today my son was playing the song “Vincent”, by Don McLean, on the piano. This beautiful song is about Vincent van Gogh, his art and his life. Don McLean wrote about the pain being an artist in a society who don’t acknowledge the talent of the artist. The famous and beautiful art that Vincent van Gogh created e.g. Starry night, Sunflowers etc was paradoxically acknowledged after his dead. The society did not understand Vincent van Gogh and thought of him as an insane person – as Don Mclean wrote in his song. “This world was never meant for one as beautiful as you” meaning the challenge for an artist is that there might be no one in the society who understand the art you’re creating before years later. That was actually one of the reasons that the Swedish philosophical and spiritual artist Hilma of Klimt testament all her art to be published many years after her dead. So that’s the tragedy of Vincent van Gogh – he was in a way an Artist archetype as the “black sheep” of an insane society, and the same goes with a lot of other artist, philosophers, poets etc – people who actually had the courage to question the sanity of the conditioned and conform society.
It was like a theme “found us” in our Christmas Holliday – not one that we’ve planned, but somehow when you connect the dots you see the theme; following your dreams, your true self, being authentic, being in your Element was the same theme that was present in the movies we were watching during our Christmas Holliday; The Greatest Showman and Lala land were basically about following your dreams – not compromise, but truly follow YOUR dream. I can really recommend these movies. It surely isn’t easy to follow your dream and being true to yourself – and the synchronicity in these movies, the song Vincent and listening to Sir Ken Robinson astonished me afterwards. Actually the problem with educational systems reproduction of the old paradigm is that everything “outside the box” is defined as insane. In fact the educational system today neglect the power of the students creative thinking – that to me is insanity.
It’s when you’re in your Element things matters
The New Paradigm is very much about staying true to yourself. Have the courage to live your life as the magical proces it actually is, and be critical to systems and people who don’t accept and respect your talent and your journey. Constructive critics can be welcomed, but if you find yourself out of your Element and manifesting someones else’s dream it’s not your soul journey. Sir Ken Robinson wrote in The Element: “When people are in the zone, they align naturally with a way of thinking that works best for them. I believe this is the reason that time seems to take on a new dimension when you are in the zone. (…) When people use a thinking style completely natural to them, everything comes easily” (Robinson, p.96, 2009, Penguin Books). So as we approach 2026 let this be your promise to yourself – to be in your Element. Happy New Year!
