The age of 25, by the time we're about 25 is when our brain is pretty well set before that it is still fairly malleable. The person who sort of founded the idea of neuroplasticity is a guy named Alvaro Pasqualeoni and what he said is that our brain is like a ski slope. What we want to do is learn how to take different paths around those rocks and those trees so that we're seeing something different, but still with the same brain.
This week I was excited to talk with Monica Parker about her new book The Power of Wonder: The Extraordinary Emotion That Will Change the Way You Live, Learn. Monica is an author, speaker, and the founder of global human analytics and change consultancy HATCH, though her career has been punctuated with such highlights as being an opera singer, a museum exhibition designer, and a homicide investigator defending death row inmates for Florida’s Department of Justice.
With such an eclectic and varied set of interests Monica has observed that the key component that ties them all together is a sense of curiosity and wonder. In this conversation we unpack exactly what wonder is and why it can seem at times difficult to access. We also address the practical steps that you can take to rejuvenate and reconnect with the wonder of this world in your everyday life your observations and even your workplace.
This is a vital episode for anyone who feels like their intellectual curiosity or even inner nerd has been fading and who wants to reconnect with the childlike wonder that fueled their early curiosities and passions. Monica helps listeners explore some of the research she has been uncovering about our brain's plasticity and how it's never too late to start living a life with more curiosity, more intentionality and more wonder.
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