“When I look over the course of my life, my way of connecting with other human beings, trying to understand what motivates them, what pains them, and what brings them joy is the common thread,” Shankar explains to Jay Shetty. Shankar tells Jay Shetty that the music created an emotional intimacy and bond with the audience. Imagine being on a stage with thousands of people you have never met, and within moments your music allows them to feel things they have never felt before. I love the sounds that it produces, but the thing that got me thinking is the fact that my instrument allowed me to forge a close emotional connection with people almost effortlessly.” “I love the violin,” she says to Jay Shetty. Instead, she decided to focus on the traits that passion had brought out in her. She realized she shouldn’t have attached her identity to one specific activity.
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It can carry through into adulthood as well, and I fell prey to that.” A New DirectionĪfter resisting her diagnosis for a time, Shankar accepted the fact that she would never become a professional violinist.
There is a concept called identity foreclosure that refers to the fact that we can get fixed on certain identities, especially in adolescence. “Up until that point, I felt like I was first and foremost a violinist,” Shankar said to Jay Shetty.
She was devastated at the premature end to a promising career. Tragically, her dream was shattered in an instant when she tore a tendon in her finger at age 15. “So when a prominent teacher took me on as a student, it was the vote of confidence that I needed to believe I had what it takes.” “When you’re in a deeply competitive environment like Juilliard, you don’t really know if you have what it takes to succeed,” Shankar explains to Jay Shetty. As Shankar’s passion for the violin grew, so did her ability–so much so that famed violinist Itzhak Perlman asked her to be his private violin student when she was a teenager. You need to go out and create them yourself. You cannot always wait for opportunities to come your way. Shankar has never forgotten the lesson her mother taught her that day. Six months later, I auditioned for Juilliard, and got accepted.” “I auditioned for the teacher and he accepted me into a summer program. “They were so generous and kind,” Shankar tells Jay Shetty. What if they thought she was terrible and rejected her? Her mom, however, wasn’t waiting for an invitation, so they went in and asked for an audition. Shankar’s nine-year-old mind objected to that idea. On a whim, her mother suggested they walk in and ask to audition. She was a fearless go-getter who wasn’t afraid of taking chances.ĭuring a trip to New York when she was nine, Shankar and her mother walked past the Juilliard School of Music. Although her parents didn’t have connections in the music world, her mom did have one thing-reckless abandon.
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Shankar began to have big dreams for a future as a professional violinist, but she had no idea how to reach them. She tells Jay Shetty that she rushed home from school every day to play, and she never had to be told to practice.
Once she had the pint-sized instrument in her hands, Shankar was hooked. Shankar was instantly smitten with the instrument and asked for a violin of her own. When Shankar was six years old, her mother showed her a violin her grandmother brought with her as one of the few possessions she carried when she immigrated to America. In this article, Shankar shares with Jay Shetty how she learned to accept the changes in her life and move through them with grace to find purpose. There, she founded and served as chair of the White House’s Behavioral Science Team, a group of scientists tasked with improving public policy using research insights gleaned from human behavior.įorced to pivot from her dream of becoming a professional violin player, Shankar realized the human connection is what sparks her passion. Shankar’s expertise on human behavior landed her a place in Obama’s White House. In this article, Jay Shetty sits down with the Senior Director of Behavioral Economics at Google, Maya Shankar, to discuss how her life took a dramatic turn at age 15 after an accident stripped her of her identity and left her questioning who she was. Or, you can learn to embrace change gracefully. You can spend your time and energy trying to avoid changes, only to have them catch up to you in the long run. Change is not always easy, but it’s something everyone experiences.
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