Shankar: Affirmations in crisis should focus on unthreatened identities
Maya Shankar · Maya Shankar: How to make smarter changes | Masters of Scale · Jan 24, 2026 · at 28:22
Cognitive scientist Maya Shankar discusses strategies for identity resilience and navigating grief during major life disruptions.
0:00 / 0:10exact quote · 10.4s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“You just take five or 10 minutes, and you write down all the identities, all the things you really value in your life that give your life great meaning, but that importantly are not threatened by the change you're going through.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Maya Shankar
Shankar: Major disruptions inspire lasting internal change people appreciate
“When big changes happen to us, they also inspire lasting change within us. And by and large, the people that I've interviewed over the years for The Other Side of Change, but also for my podcast, they haven't been happy, necessarily, that the change happened t…”
Shankar: Innovators must frame tools around partners' existing goals
“Now you framed what you're doing as actually complementary to their efforts rather than sitting as like a tangential thing or like something that might be at odds with their thing, right? And so in every conversation, I try to first do my research and understa…”
Shankar: Shared psychological struggles imply shared solutions across life changes
“Like, if the problem statement's the same for those of us going through change, then probably the solution set's gonna be the same, too.”
Shankar: Vastly different life disruptions evoke the same psychological states
“The cancer patient and the woman who finds out that her husband has had an affair, they both are grappling with a feeling of betrayal. They're both having to deal with that same psychological state.”
Shankar: Practicing a habit for one minute a day primes self-reinforcing identity
“The difference between writing zero minutes a day, and writing one minute a day, is that in the one minute world, you're a writer. And when you prime that identity, it's self-reinforcing. It leads to a virtuous cycle.”