Something You Should Know
The Transformative Power of Wonder & How Money REALLY Works - SYSK Choice
Sat, 24 May 2025
It is hard to imagine life without sunglasses. So, who came up with the idea – and when? We begin this episode by going way back to the very first pair of sunglasses and I’ll reveal how our modern-day sunglasses came about not all that long ago. ago. http://www.glasseshistory.com/glasses-history/history-of-sunglasses/ We have all felt that sense of wonder. It’s that feeling you get when you first see the Grand Canyon or an incredible sunset or the stars above against a really dark sky. Sadly, we often lose our sense of wonder as we get older. Still, your sense of wonder is worth holding on to and developing further, according to Monica Parker. She has spent many years helping people discover how to lead lives full of wonder. Monica is author of the book The Power of Wonder (https://amzn.to/3I5F5Y4). Listen as she explains the amazing benefits of finding wonder in your world. What is money and how does it work? It may seem like a simple question yet, there is a lot of misunderstanding about it. One example is that some people worry about the federal government running out of money. What if the government can’t pay its bills? Well, that can’t happen according to L. Randall Wray, a professor of Economics at Bard College, Senior Scholar at the Levy Economics Institute and author of Money for Beginners: An Illustrated Guide (https://amzn.to/42BuPPG). Listen as he discusses how money works, how it has changed and what the future of money is. Some people claim they can get by on 4 or 5 hours of sleep? Really? What happens when people who sleep very little are tested against people who get a good night’s sleep? Listen as I explain what happens to people who try to perform on very little sleep. https://www.restoringhealth.center/how-many-hours-of-sleep-do-you-actually-need PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS!!! MINT MOBILE: Ditch overpriced wireless and get 3 months of premium wireless service from Mint Mobile for 15 bucks a month at https://MintMobile.com/something ! FACTOR: Eat smart with Factor! Get 50% off at https://FactorMeals.com/something50off TIMELINE: Get 10% off your order of Mitopure! Go to https://Timeline.com/SOMETHING ROCKET MONEY: Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster! Go to https://RocketMoney.com/SOMETHING QUINCE: Elevate your shopping with Quince! Go to https://Quince.com/sysk for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns! INDEED: Get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility at https://Indeed.com/SOMETHING right now! DELL: The power of Dell AI with Intel inside is transforming the world of pro sports! For the players and the fans who are there for every game. See how Dell Technologies with Intel inside can help find your advantage, and power your wins at https://Dell.com/Wins Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: Who invented sunglasses and when?
Well, yeah, and you hear that phrase, childlike wonder, because everybody knows exactly what that is. But what you just said about... that as you get older and you have a lot of life experiences, it seems as if there are fewer things to be in awe of, to find wonder in, because, you know, been there, done that.
I've already seen Mickey Mouse a million times, so it doesn't matter to see him again, doesn't inspire those same feelings. That does seem to be true, that as you get older, the world is less wonderful.
I can appreciate sort of that take, but the reality is that I think that's a perception that we have because there is so much to feel a sense of wonder about. And there's no question we can't see Mickey Mouse again for the first time. We can't see the Grand Canyon for the first time except once. But what research shows is that we can, if we choose to see it, find wonder in the quotidian.
We can find it in our day-to-day lives. And that might be just a perfect sunrise or a beautiful autumn leaf, but really it's about the lens through which we choose to see the world. It's about a mindset.
is it for someone like you who practices this is it deliberate do you have to stop and say okay it's time to find some wonder now or is it more smooth than that it just flows
But what the research shows is that if we prime ourselves to find wonder, and it can be a single sentence prime, I'm going to find three things to feel a sense of wonder about today, then our brain will commit greater cognitive resources to finding it.
And so certainly priming can help, but over time as it becomes a practice, neurons that fire together wire together and will start to create these neural pathways where we will recognize wonder more often. I don't see it as onerous. I simply see it as another thing that is good for us and fun to do.
Okay, so I'm looking at a sunset and it's a beautiful sunset. What's the difference between looking at the sunset and saying, isn't that a beautiful sunset and looking at that sunset and finding wonder in it?
So one of the main ways is it's something that psychologists call small self. So anything that we experience that feels a sense of vastness, and that can be a sense of emotional vastness or cognitive vastness, where we say, goodness, this makes me feel like a small component part of a bigger system. That's really how we start to tap into wonder.
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Chapter 5: Can people perform well on little sleep?
I'm Charissa and my recommendation to all entrepreneurs is to successfully start with Shopify. I've been using Shopify for the first day and the platform never causes me any problems. I have a lot of problems, but the platform is never one of them. I have the feeling that Shopify continuously optimizes their platform. Everything is super easy to integrate and linkable.
And the time and money that I save from it, I can invest in other ways. Especially in growth.
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So, Monica, one of the things about Wonder that I really enjoy is not just the thing that everybody's oohing and aahing about. It's watching the people oo and aah. And I think I've mentioned this on another episode, but I remember very distinctly.
There used to be in Long Beach, California, next to the Queen Mary, there used to be Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose airplane, which he built out of wood in World War II. I don't remember the story, but this airplane is so big. It is so immense, you can't even imagine how big it is.
unless you see it and I was standing at the doorway where people would come around the corner and and it would smack him in the face and to a person I would watch them come around the corner and they would go Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Because they were just in awe of this thing because no one knew how big it was. And I just got such a thrill out of watching that.
Kids, grownups, everybody would turn the corner and just be in awe.
And you've just perfectly encapsulated how wonder shared is wonder multiplied. Even though those people perhaps didn't know that they were sharing that experience with you, you were sharing it with them. And by watching them experience it, you got that little dose of it as if you were experiencing it again for the first time.
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Chapter 6: How does money really work?
add to each other and can still have the same impact and so again it's it's about shifting the lens and saying it doesn't only have to be that if that's your choice it can be but what i want to encourage people to do is really instead to have a mindset in which we can find it anywhere
Is there been any research, do you find that it seems like as people age that wonder becomes less a part of their life? It's just because it has to be more deliberate because fewer things are new and exciting. And is that true? I mean...
It is absolutely true. It's true for a couple of different reasons. First, one of the key components of wonder being curiosity. We are naturally less curious as we age. This is simply, again, because we think that we've discovered everything there is to discover. But of course, that's erroneous. There's so many things we can discover. But curiosity is a bit like a muscle.
The more that we practice it, the more then that we will be able to experience curiosity. So if we can hone that sort of curiosity muscle, then we will find more things to feel a sense of wonder about. But we are dealing with a more calcified brain. We're dealing with neural pathways that are very set.
And we're dealing with more schema, building blocks that have decided, well, I know everything there is to know about the world. But I think in that there's a little bit of hubris as well, you know, a little bit of ego to say, well, I've seen it all. But of course, if we, again, approach things with the eyes of a child, we can find those elements to feel a sense of wonder about.
But there's no question that it is harder than it is for children. And that's one of the reasons why I believe we feel such a sense of wonder watching children experience those things for the first time. It's why we get so much joy watching babies and children, you know, have those experiences. Yeah.
Generally, I think when people think of wonder, they think of it in a very positive way. But it seems like you can find wonder in negative situations, sad situations. It's not all positive and wonderful. You can find wonder in the bad, too.
And that's that sense of mixed emotion. Another one of those is nostalgia is a mixed emotion where we can reflect back and consider both the positive and negative. And it's really positive that it's beneficial for us.
There was a piece of research done where widows and widowers, if they reflected on their deceased loved one and remembered both the positive and negative elements of their relationship, they were more resilient. They were better able to manage their grief. And so what we know is if we choose to receive both the
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