Are You More Like Mozart or Ben Franklin?
People have one of two primary personality types. Which one you are determines how you should plan and structure your life and goals. Two geniuses from history illustrate these two personality types: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Benjamin Franklin.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had one primary passion — music. When it came down to it, nearly everything else in his life was secondary to his passion for music. He also had one primary area of excellence in his life — music. What made him one of the greatest composers of all time is that his primary passion matched up with his primary area of excellence.
Benjamin Franklin was different from Mozart. Ben had a number of interests. Early in his life he was a printer, first as an apprentice to his brother, and later as a journeyman on his own. While working as a printer, he followed an interest in writing. He wrote the Silence Dogood Letters anonymously while still an apprentice, and later wrote Poor Richard’s Almanack and many other books and articles. He taught himself Latin, French, and other languages. He was a scientist and inventor, inventing many things that we use still today on a daily basis. He even invented a unique musical instrument — the glass armonica — that Mozart composed music for. And, he was a statesman, ambassador, and congressman.
Mozart and Ben Franklin were both incredible people, who each left us a lasting legacy of greatness. Neither is better than the other, but both have different personality types. And, you probably find yourself more like Mozart or more like Ben.
Mozart found for himself his own, personal element. Ken Robinson, in his book The Element, describes the element as “the place where passion meets excellence”. According to Robinson, people can have more than one element, but they tend to find one element that represents their principle passion.
Stephen Hawking is one example of an element soul. He learned early in his University career that he had a great aptitude for physics and cosmology. This developed into a passion that he worked to become excellent at. Now he is one of the leading authorities in the formation of the universe, and black holes in particular. He has authored a number of best-selling books, including A Brief History of Time. This is all the more amazing when you understand that he suffered from Lou Gehrig’s disease since his early 20’s. He was almost completely paralyzed.
Ben Franklin, on the other hand, didn’t find just one area of passion. Ben is an example of what Margaret Lobenstine calls a renaissance soul (in her book titled The Renaissance Soul). Renaissance souls have many interests — often more than they can ever hope to fully explore. They have just as high of standards for their interests as element souls have for their passion, but they tend to focus on broad areas of interest with shallower expertise, rather than a single passion with deep expertise.
Leonardo da Vinci is perhaps the classic example of a renaissance soul. He was a painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, and writer (whew!). And, he did all of these things very well.
What is Your Soul Type?
The first step in determining how to plan and structure your life is for you to decide which personality type you are. Identifying whether you are an element soul or a renaissance soul is important because each of the personality types lives their life fundamentally differently.
For element souls, the first key is to identify what their personal element is. Once that is accomplished, element souls will pursue their element so single-mindedly that they may need to be reminded to work on other areas of their lives. Otherwise, they run the risk of developing an unbalanced life and personality. Renaissance souls, on the other hand, have so many interests that the real challenge is picking just a few to focus on at any given time. For them, it’s all a matter of managing how they swap one interest for another.
So, let’s do a quick exercise to see where you fit. This exercise was adapted from The Renaissance Soul. Answer each of these questions as either a definite yes or a definite no.
1. Have you found yourself wishing that you could decide what you want to “be when you grow up” because you are interested in too many things?
2. Are you interested in so many different subjects that you are frustrated because you don’t have expertise in any of them?
3. Are you an expert in a particular area, but feel trapped by expectations of other people that you will stay in that career or field for the rest of your life?
4. When reading career books or hearing advice from advisors that you pick just one passion or goal, does this annoy or discourage you?
5. Do you have a constantly changing set of interests, but feel that friends and family members are trying to hold you back when they insist that you find something you like and follow through on it?
If you answered, “yes” to two or more of these questions, then the chances are very good that you are a renaissance soul. If not, then you are most likely an element soul. In either case, one of the sections below is tailored to you and to how your own soul-type will influence your millionaire outcome.
The Element Soul
If you found yourself to be an element soul, your element will most likely be the same as the career you choose to follow. Your biggest initial challenge will be to identify what your own element is. In this area, you are lucky. There are many career and goal planning resources that will work great for you.
One thing you may find, though, is that your element may be in an area that is outside the core areas of our education system. Today, our education system focuses on the “hard” subjects that are built on the foundation of reading, writing, and arithmetic. This is great if you find your element to be something like law, medicine, physics, economics, or other similar areas of study.
But if your element is in one of the “soft” subjects, like music, theater, art, or public service, the education system is often not well adapted to help you develop your element. In the same way, traditional ideas like a career or job may not be as well suited to pursue your element. You may have to be very creative in how you pursue your element.
Remember, as an element soul, you are looking for that thing that you are passionate about, which you are also excellent at. You likely won’t identify your element overnight. You may change directions a time or two before you identify what truly feels “right” to you.
The Renaissance Soul
If you are a renaissance soul, you will have a very different challenge from that of an element soul. Rather than having a single, primary passion that you want to dedicate your life to, you will rather have a number of strong interests. For you, the biggest challenge will be to manage your strong interests and focus in on just a few at a time.
You start by organizing your interests. Initially, this is as simple as turning to a blank page in your journal and writing down everything that you are interested in. It doesn’t matter if you plan on doing anything about that interest right now, just brainstorm and get as many of them down on paper as you can. And, you can come back to this list later and add any others you think of later.
So write down whatever interests you. What would you like to try to do some day? What interests have you started pursuing, but let drift? Do you have a musical instrument that you started learning, but that is presently gathering dust? What would you like to eventually list as your accomplishments? You may end up with 10, 50, or even 100 items on your list.
When you look at your list, you may have a gut reaction: “Yeah, right. There’s no way I can do all this.” And, you are partially right. There is no way you can do all of this right now. But remember, you have your whole life in front of you. What you want to do is to pick a few of the things that you are most interested in to focus on right now, knowing that you have an organized way of coming back to work on as many of the other interests later as you would like to.
Margaret Lobenstine gives an interesting analogy about how to do this.
Suppose you went into an ice cream parlor that has a hundred flavors and were told that you had to pick one (and only one) flavor that you would eat every time you came into the store for the rest of your life. Would that be difficult for you? Or, suppose you were told that you had to eat some of all 100 flavors every time you came in. Would that be any better?
Neither alternative is very enticing. However, suppose the clerk told you about the special three-flavor sampler that they had. You can pick three flavors today. Next time you come in, you can pick three flavors, repeating some of flavors from today or replacing some of them with new flavors. You can have your pick of three flavors every time you come in.
Looking at your strong interests in the same way can be incredibly liberating. As a renaissance soul, you don’t have to settle on just one interest to dedicate the rest of your life to. But selecting a small number of interests to act as focal points allows you to take action without being stopped by indecision. You don’t have to worry about keeping all your options open, and you can channel your energies into just a few, select areas.
Here are some sample flavor sets that may resemble your own.
- Maintaining a 3.90 GPA; Learning digital photography and photo manipulation; Planning for a Senior Trip to Europe.
- Maintaining quality relationships with family members; Performing with your flute duet at state solo and ensemble festival; Taking woodworking in shop.
- Getting involved in service projects at the local care center; Learning how to meditate; Participating as a member of the school golf team.
Remember, you will review your flavor sets regularly, and have the opportunity to swap interests out for new ones as appropriate. For instance, in Set 2, after performing your flute duet at State, you may choose to swap out flute for the new interest of trying out for a part in the school musical. That wouldn’t mean you like flute less — just that another interest (acting) is rotating in.
Your Major Definite Purpose
Regardless of whether you are an element soul or a renaissance soul, you should have a major definite purpose. A major definite purpose is the one thing that you focus on more than any other. You can have many interests or goals, but only one major definite purpose at any time.
Your major definite purpose can change from time to time.
For an element soul, your major definite purpose may be the same as your element.
For a renaissance soul, your major definite purpose would be one of your interests that you are likely to keep in your three interests for months on end. This is an interest that will possibly require significantly more effort than the other interests that may float into and out of your sphere of interest from time-to-time. This is your one particular interest that you will give significant focus to for six months, a year, or more.
The reason that having a major definite purpose is particularly important to renaissance souls is that renaissance souls often have difficulty focusing on any one thing for any period of time. But, there still is an inherent need to master something, and to build a sense of accomplishment or expertise.
At least several of the things that you find as interests will require a longer period of focused effort in order to get really good at. Having a single, definite major purpose for an extended period of time gives you the opportunity to build that expertise, while other interests can float into and out of your life every few months.
Next Steps
So, by now, you should have a pretty good idea of whether you are an element soul or a renaissance soul. The next steps for you to take will depend on which you are.
Element Soul
1. If you don’t know what your element is already, find out. Remember, an element is the place where passion meets excellence. You can use one of the many career resource web sites to help you. Write your element in your journal.
2. Decide next action steps that you will take to build your excellence to higher levels. How will you do this over the next several months, as well as through the rest of your life? Write these next steps in your journal.
3. Decided if your element will be your major definite purpose, or if you have some other thing that will be. Write it down.
Renaissance Soul
1. Make a list in your journal of all those things that you have an interest in. See if you can come up with one hundred things.
2. Out of all of those interests, decide which of those interests will be your three flavors for the next 90 days or so. Write them in your journal.
3. Finally, write in your journal which one interest will be your major definite purpose. Write your next action steps that you will take toward achieving your major definite purpose.
You can see, can’t you, why it can be so helpful to figure out if you are more like Mozart or more like Ben Franklin. By structuring your life according to your core personality type, you can find fulfillment and build a powerful future.
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