Pushkin

There are lots of things that are pretty awesome about being a professor at Yale and a happiness expert.

But the thing about my job that makes me most grateful is the fact that I get to interact with such fantastic students.

My undergrads have gone on to be scientists and lawyers, doctors and novelists, startup founders and craft beer brewers.

But I somehow never expected that one of my star psychology students, Maya Shankar,

would grow up to become a podcast host just like me.

And that she'd have an amazing new podcast on the science of behavior change.

It's called a slight change of plans.

In retrospect though, I probably shouldn't have been surprised.

And that's because she experienced her own devastating not-so-slite change of career plans when she was still only a teenager.

If you had asked Maya back in the day, what she wanted to be when she grew up, she would have given you a pretty quick answer.

100% of violinist.

That was the thing I was super into.

I started playing when I was six.

My mom had my grandma's violin in the attic from India. She had brought it all away with her.

She asked my three older siblings if they wanted to play.

And they were like, this isn't cool.

And apparently I wasn't that cool.

So I was like, this sounds great.

And I fell in love with it really quickly.

Practicing didn't feel painful for me.

I also just loved the idea that I could work hard at something and then I could see myself get better.

...