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Women of Impact

Behavioral Scientist Shows You How to EMBRACE CHANGE & Stop Feeling SORRY For Yourself

Women of Impact

Impact Theory

Relationships, Education, Society & Culture

4.8700 Ratings

🗓️ 22 June 2022

⏱️ 54 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Change is “wildly complex!” It’s exciting, it’s inspiring, it’s also nerve wrecking, anxiety inducing and scary as hell. Some people do extremely well with change while others have meltdowns and can barely handle the stress of change.

The thing we’re diving into in this episode is not just the external side of dealing with change, but the internal state of change. Whether you’re moving, taking a new job, ending a relationship, dealing with the loss of a loved one, or trying to adapt with polarized political wins and losses, your identity is being challenged at the core of everything.

Maya Shankar is the host and executive producer of, Slight Change of Plans, a podcast about, “who we are and who we become in the face of a big change.” She is a former violinist that was accepted into Julliard who underwent a massive change of identity. Maya later found herself leading as the founder and lead of the White House Behavioral Science Team under President Barack Obama.

Let’s talk about the tactics you need to let go of the identity you’re holding onto in the face of life’s major changes. As Maya points out, some of the changes you experience are willing and others are unwilling changes, but in both cases the value is placed on detaching your identity from the pursuit of a specific thing, and deciding on purpose who you are in the face of change.


SHOW NOTES:

0:00 | Introduction to Maya Shankar

0:25 | How Change Threatens Your Identity

10:32 | Grieving The Loss of Identity

27:02 | Recreate Habits for a New Identity

39:20 | Find Meaning In Suffering


Follow Maya Shankar:

Website: https://mayashankar.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MayaUmaShankar

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drmayashankar/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maya.shankar.14

Podcast: https://mayashankar.com/podcast


Go to https://www.radicalconfidence.com to get your copy of my book Radical Confidence! When you do, you’ll be getting a toolkit of 10 No-BS lessons on becoming the hero of your own life - and you’ll learn how to set better boundaries, live a life that lights you up, and give you the ability to boldly stare down ANY frikin’ thing that gets between you and the things you want from life!


Are You Ready for EXTRA Impact?

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  • Curious about your health? We’ve got you covered in Health Hub. 
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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance, Fiscally Responsible, Financial Geniuses, Monetary Magicians.

0:07.1

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0:13.2

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0:16.6

Progressive Casualty Insurance companies and affiliates, potential savings will vary, not available in all states or situations.

0:23.6

So I had a choice to me.

0:25.2

I could either bow out, feel sorry for myself, live the rest of my life, you know, in that state of mine.

0:32.9

Or I could choose to participate.

0:36.5

I could choose to step back into the arena.

0:43.0

Maya, welcome to Women of Impact. Thank you so much for having me, Lisa. As a behavioral and

0:49.3

cognitive scientist, like I really want to dig deep into what is happening to us right now as the world has changed

0:56.6

and the way that we see our lives has changed because I think we're reassessing what's

1:00.4

going to make us happy and what life do we actually want.

1:04.9

And so we all may have an idea of what that looks like but the act to start changing can

1:10.3

be so petrifying. And so I want to

1:13.3

start with a quote of yours. The reason why we have so much discomfort and anxiety in the face of

1:18.7

change is because it threatens our sense of identity. And so I really want to start there.

1:24.0

What is happening to our brains and to us that is perceiving change to be so

1:30.5

threatening? Yeah, I mean, that quote has origins in a very personal story of mine because when I was

1:39.3

a teenager, I was on the fast track to trying to become a professional violin.

1:45.1

So from the time that I was six years old, the violin really was my life.

1:49.9

I committed so much time to it.

1:51.9

And when I was nine, I started studying at the Juilliard School of Music in New York.

...

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