The men walked in silence, leaving the stream for the sidewalks and street signs. As they neared the Coach's house, he picked up the conversation once again, this time with a personal confession.
“So many times, when I've gotten stuck, I've wrapped myself around an identity of ‘that's just how I am.’ I'm telling you, I lose sight of who I really am. I'm not saying I'm someone who is spectacular or brilliant, while I fall in love with the smell of my own aftershave.” The Client chuckled at the thought.
The men walked on. “I'm talking about how human beings are wired – or Livewired, as the case may be.”
The Coach was referencing a book by David Eagleman,1 a neuroscientist at Stanford University. Nineteen steps later, the two men entered the Coach's house, encountering a large sitting room where books lined the walls. The Coach pulled Livewired off the shelf and handed it to the Client. “Take a look,” he said, pointing.
The book was filled with stories of people who had experienced dramatic loss – loss of limbs, hearing, sight, and more. Yet these people had been able to rewire their brains, literally, so that the part of the brain used for seeing, hearing, or walking was transformed. Repurposed. Reinvented. Their identities – and their capabilities – changed dramatically. How? ...