Elements

Element Tragic Tee - Red X Med
$0.00
Online Exclusive! Theres nothing tragic about this one. Brand name and logo featured. Branches extend onto sleeves. Authenticity patch on sleeve features brand logo.

Element Kensington Hoodie - Black X Lrg
$0.00
Element patched on chest. Zip closure under toggles. Multiple brown spots cover hoodie. Soft fleece lined hood and interior. Ribbed hem and cuffs, 2 hand pockets.

The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything
$25.95
This is the first self-help book I've read start to finish, so my take on this title is with inexperience in the genre. (I presume many out there read MANY such books so my review will be of little use.) This is a great book to stimulate thinking about what your passion could be. If anything, the time spent reading the book is also time that you force yourself to mull over what it is in life that moves you. Instead of asking you to sit for 10 hours on an unguided (and likely frustrating) process to figure out what your "Element" is, you are better served to read this book. I found myself stopping many times to reflect on Robinson's concepts and examples. I would strongly recommend reading this book with a notepad to write down your ideas - many of mine have receded into my subconscious unfortunately. Your strategy for this title is that the book is a means to and end, not the end.

The cons to the title is that most of the examples of those who found their passion are frustrating in that their passions were insanely obvious to these people. The examples serve a great purpose but we need a few that represent us in the mass middle who don't have a strong pull into any specific area. To that end I left the book feeling that for a great majority of us we won't find a passion that is equivalent to Paul McCartney's or Meg Ryan's. I suspect many of us will never have such a magnetic draw to a specific "tribe" but smaller draws to many tribes. Also, none of the examples had someone finding their passion in the fields that Robinson subtlety derides - office work, corporate jobs, non-artsy, non-musical, non-creative work. The only reason that the arts can flourish is because of the millions of us willing to produce, day in and day out, digging ditches and running wire, programming routers, growing food and cleaning toilets. How do these workers find their passion? Can their passion lie in these fields? We can't all be artists, musicians, or actors, and if people made such a decision our economy would implode. So how do the rest of us find our Element?

I give credit to the writer for pushing his personal story to the rear of the book - Robinson came from great hardship and most writers (and all politicians) would have used such a back story as a cudgel. Robinson draws from it as needed to make points. Also, like many, I was drawn to the title by Robinson's stirring speech on Youtube. At the end he touches on education but by then it is a sidelight to the book, which is a little ironic. He's right - our education system is an outmoded disaster, so he was preaching to the choir on that point.

All in all, this is worth the time, if anything, to force you to reflect on what your Element might be.

Element Blended Shirt - Gray X Lrg
$0.00
Wear it long sleeve or cuffed. You decide. Rolled sleeves with button tab. 2 chest pockets in button flap closure. Authenticity patch at bottom hem and pocket. Brand logo embroidered on back.