Dr. Maya Shankar

And I think this actually leads to the thesis of my work overall, both for my podcast, A Slight Change of Plans, and then also this book, which is that we sometimes forget that we ourselves change.

So when a big change happens to us, it also inspires lasting change within us.

And this is actually a very hopeful message because when we're really daunted at the outset of a change, if we remind ourselves that we're actually going to become new people on the other side of it with new perspectives and new values and new abilities and new ways of seeing the world, we might feel so much more capable of actually surviving the change than we do just given our present day selves.

And we often forget that we change so much so that scientists have coined a term for this.

It's called the end of history illusion.

And it refers to the idea that while we fully acknowledge we've changed considerably in the past.

So show me pictures of high school Maya and I will do everything in the world to distance myself from that person.

I think I'm a completely different person now.

But if you were to ask me, hey, Maya, do you think you're going to change a lot in the future?

I'd be like, oh, no, no, no, no, no.

I'm totally done now.

What you see is what you get.

Finished product here.

And it's this funny little game our brains play on us, which is, yeah, we've changed a bunch before.

But what you see today is the finished product.

And of course, we are always changing and a big unexpected change in our lives can accelerate those internal shifts.

And so I see changes carrying so much possibility for self-growth and transformation.

And what I have found from everyone that I've interviewed is that while they might not have been

happy that the change happened, which is so expected.

I want to be very truthful with folks, right?