How She Does It EP 72: Responding To Change: Maya Shankar On Finding Your “Why” When Facing An Unexpected Detour
We’re all likely to encounter some change in life that’s unwelcome: a scary health diagnosis, the end of a relationship, the loss of a job, or the end of a dream. Maya Shankar, PhD, deeply understands the concept of change and offers a roadmap for navigating it.
She is a cognitive scientist and Senior Director of Behavioral Economics at Google. But she is perhaps best known for her side gig: being the creator and host of the award-winning podcast A Slight Change of Plans. Her fascination with how we navigate change started when she was a teen, and a hand injury forced her to give up her dream of becoming a professional violinist.
In this episode, Maya speaks with Karen about that first pivot as well as some difficult challenges she faced later, and how she has built a successful career teaching others how to learn from the unexpected. It’s all in her New York Times Bestseller, “The Other Side Of Change: Who We Become When Life Makes Other Plans.”
💬 In this episode, we explore:
- Maya’s biggest piece of advice for transitioning through change: finding your “why”
- Tools that can be helpful during the most difficult periods of change
- How Maya’s mother taught her the importance of the cold call / cold email (or, in her mom’s case, the cold drop-by-Julliard)
- Maya’s view of imposter syndrome and how one can leverage it into becoming better at your job
Resources:🔗 Visit Dr. Maya Shankar’s website
📕 For Information on “The Other Side of Change: Who We Become When Life Makes Other Plans.”
📸 Follow Maya Shakar on Instagram
📸 Follow Maya Shakar on X
🎧 Listen to A Slight Change of Plans
📸 Follow Riverhead Books on Instagram
🎧 New episodes of How She Does It drop every Tuesday. Be sure to follow us so you never miss an episode
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