We are so bad as humans at knowing what makes us happy. We tend to think that this thing that we're going to have in the future is going to give us a greater sense of happiness. But wonder is a mixed emotion. It has a little bit of this fear in trembling, but it also has this positive sense of joy and exploration. So having experiencing mixed emotions are more accessible because obviously we can't possibly be happy when something terrible happens. I don't know how you can watch school shootings or the war in Ukraine and be happy, but you can be and wonder.
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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