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  • The original impulse behind the book was a recognition I have had that there are very

  • many people who don't really enjoy what they do or perhaps even how they live. They don't

  • enjoy the work they do, and they sort of tolerate it. You know, they get through the week and

  • they wait for the weekend. There's a lot of evidence of that, by the way. A lot of studies

  • have shown there's massive disengagement at the workplace. And yet, I also meet people

  • who love what they do and that couldn't really imagine doing anything else. If you said to

  • them, why don't you do something else for a change? They really wouldn't know what you

  • meant. They'd say, well, this isn't, you know, what I do. It's who I am. And they could be

  • veterinarians, pathologists. They could be dancers, musicians.They could be teachers,

  • homemakers. You name it. If you can think of a human activity or occupation, there will

  • be people who love it and live for it and others who couldn't bear it. So I was just

  • intrigued by the difference between these two ways of being, and the difference it makes.

  • I think it has really considerable implications. It has implications that are social in character.

  • You know, if we have communities where large tranches of the population are simply detached,

  • disengaged, uninterested, of course it has big consequences. If people are disengaged

  • at work it has large consequences. Now, I'm not suggesting for a minute that if everybody

  • finds their element, it'll solve every social problem we face, but I'm certainly saying

  • it would help. And my long-term conviction has always been that we all have deep talents

  • and the potential for engagement and we should explore it.

  • I have fallen into using the phrase, "the other climate crisis." And I think it has

  • a resonance. What I mean by it is that we have become used to the fact now, I least

  • I hope we have, that there is a crisis in the world's natural resources. But I also

  • think that there is a crisis in our human resources and how we use them. And one of

  • the themes of the book is to make an analogy between the natural world and the way our

  • lives operate. We tend to think that we, you know, we persuade ourselves because we live

  • in cities like New York or L.A. or wherever, that we're somehow independent of nature.

  • And of course, we're not. We're organic creatures. We live and we die and we -- we're subject

  • to the seasons of our own lives. And just like the earth, it seems to me, human resources

  • are often buried deep beneath the surface. You can spend your whole life completely oblivious

  • to some talent you may have because the opportunity never showed up for you to discover it or

  • to develop it.

  • So that's the broad aim of the book is to dig down more deeply into what it means to

  • be in your element, but also the book is really focused on providing some practical support,

  • help and exercises. And if that's a journey that you're interested in taking for yourself

  • or for people you know and love, your children or people you work with, then I hope you'll

  • stay with us here on Big Think Mentor.

The original impulse behind the book was a recognition I have had that there are very

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