Pod Insights Change Wired Lost in your career? These 4 questions from a behavioral scientist are your GPS. About this episode Feeling stuck in your career or business path? Or unclear? That frustrating thought, "I want to work on interesting projects, and I'm not doing that right now" - might be your wake-up call for change. This episode unveils four powerful questions from behavioral scientist Matt Wallert that will transform how you approach your next professional chapter. Rather than randomly trying new opportunities, these questions create a framework to filter what truly matters to you. I walk through each question while sharing my personal answers to show how this process works in practice. The answers will connect to your lived experiences and pain points you've encountered. For me, it revealed two driving themes: helping unlock human potential that's left unexplored and fixing systems that harm rather than help - this method will help you understand driving themes of your life. Understanding these core motivators has changed how I evaluate opportunities. This framework works equally well for individual reflection or as a group exercise with teams or family members. Try these questions yourself, then share them with someone navigating their own transition. Time to tune up your career GPS! Tune in! Text Me Your Thoughts and IdeasSupport the showBrought to you by Angela Shurina Behavior-First Change Leadership & Culture Transformation ConsultantEXECUTIVE & OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE COACH
Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 Hey guys and welcome back to another episode of Change Wired Podcast. My name is Angela Sharina, I'm your host, I'm your executive transformation and health coach. Yes, all in one package. And on Change Wired Podcast, we are talking about change, about transformation, about personal and collective growth. All the tools that we can use from different fields of science and sometimes technology, sometimes health, sometimes productivity, sometimes just best thinkers and practitioners in the field. Again, all to serve a purpose to help you and people around you to grow, to develop,
0:42 Speaker 00 and to express in this world more of our potential. Today, guys, I want to share with you by the end of today's podcast, you're gonna have four questions that will help you to navigate your next chapter. Specifically, we're gonna talk about your next career chapter, or maybe business chapter. You're gonna have four questions that I got from one of the most brilliant behavioral scientists that we also gonna have on this podcast. Actually, today, I'm recording the interview with Matt Wallert, who is a brilliant behavioral scientist. And he also shared on his LinkedIn recently four questions to help you navigate
1:25 Speaker 00 or map out your next career moves. I actually came up to this, I found these questions sometime ago on a positive psychology website. In one of their newsletters, specifically dedicated to finding your next career or business opportunity, or where it is you want to go next professionally, helping you figure out that. So today, I'm gonna share with you these four questions and my answers. So you also have an idea how perhaps you could answer them, if not better, than to, someone to help you to navigate the answer to these questions.
2:08 Speaker 00 Because sometimes we think, oh, the question, it's clear. But then somebody else tells you, no, I actually thought that that was asking me about that. And so you don't really then know. What to answer and that's where examples help us to be more clear about what it is asked of us. And then also stay tuned in the next few episodes over the course of next couple of weeks of next week. For sure, the next episode is going to be around our biology. Specifically, we're going to talk about updates on our circadian biology or our internal clocks in every one of our cells
2:48 Speaker 00 and in our brain that affects everything that we do as humans, how we feel, how we think, how we do our work. And those things fluctuate throughout our days. Also, we're going to talk about different tests, new tests, and how you best can take your melatonin to either help you fall asleep later. Like for me, for example, most people try to go to bed earlier. For me, I go to bed naturally. Like I would go to bed at like 8:00 P. M. But it's not always, it doesn't always works for my schedule, for what I'm trying to do in the world or the time that I want to spend with people, right? So how you can take your melatonin to either go to bed later consistently and adjust your clock faster
3:31 Speaker 00 or to wake up early and go to bed early also helps when you travel through multiple zones. The faster you can adjust your clocks, the better you will not only feel energetically, but also mentally, emotionally, and you're going to cognitively perform better. So all of that and some sleep hacks and updates that actually work and are rooted in research. All of that is coming up next week. Today, four questions that will help you to map out the your next career or business move. Again, what you're going to do in this world professionally. So how did it all come to be? Well, not so long ago, I thought to myself,
4:14 Speaker 00 I want to work on interesting projects and I'm not doing this right now. And it feels very frustrating. And I had this sort of repeat coming up again and again and again. And that was my wake up call. I'm like, enough is enough. It has to change. It was a moment of honesty. I thought I woke up to that clearly. That forced me to stop just chasing clients and doing more reach out and figuring out, finding the next business opportunity who I can work with. It forced me to stop and think better, deeper about where it is. Actually, I want to do what it is I want to do every single day of.
4:59 Speaker 00 Well, at least not my entire life then for the next few years. Because I'm not doing this. And that was the answer should have surfaced level, level one type of answer. I want to work in interesting projects and I'm not doing that. And then one evening, before falling asleep, I ended up watching a video by brilliant behavioral scientists that I mentioned at the beginning and we're going to be interviewing for our podcast today, Matt Wallert. And in it, in this video, Matt shared four questions to ask yourself when navigating a career transition or business transition. What is it you want to do in the world, right? If you feel like it's the time for reinvention, for transition,
5:43 Speaker 00 but you don't exactly know where to go or what to start. These questions will help you to figure out where it is, where it's a good place to start looking. And will give you more of a filter, a better way of filtering different opportunities and things that might come into your life. So you could try things that have more potential to work out. Maybe applying for jobs or again trying out new clients or business opportunities. So without further ado, four questions and the answers. It's hopefully they're going to be very useful to help you.
6:25 Speaker 00 You can also use the same questions to help people around you to navigate their career, move, choice or a business transition. And
6:36 Speaker 00 And that's it. Let's jump into questions. What? Question number one: what do you physically want to do in your life? Meaning, what do I want to do day to day? To me, that means applying my experience, my knowledge, to real-world challenges. I wanted to find problems worth solving and solve them. I want to learn, research, do some data analysis, build hypotheses, integrate knowledge across disciplines, and create solutions. Then I want to apply those solutions in collaboration with other people: stakeholders, teammates, partners, governors in business, people in social workers. Half of my time spent in deep thinking, creating, learning.
7:20 Speaker 00 Half of my time connecting, coaching, speaking, working with others. I love creating content like this and learning from others, interviewing people, and then sharing that. Also, a huge part of what I love doing. So behavioral design, system thinking, and making things better. Then actually, what I want to do as my job: behavioral design, system thinking, making the world better, making things better and people's lives better. Question number two: who do you want to work with? And the question is, as Matt explained, is in a sense that who do you want to spend your time with day to day? For me, that is geeks, the thinkers,
8:02 Speaker 00 framework builders, scientists, system designers, people who obsess over clarity and complexity in equal measure. And I want to collaborate also with businesspeople, creatives, policymakers, social entrepreneurs, those who live closer to the problems directly affecting people's lives. One of my favorite things in the world To do is building bridges between disciplines, between people, between mindsets. I want more of that as well. And that's why I feel like I wanna spend some of my time with these geeks and thinkers and scientists and people who try to figure things out.
8:43 Speaker 00 And then half of my time in the world, working with different stakeholders who apply all of that and to make business stuff happen, create solutions and affect people more directly. But then also I wanna talk to people and explore and in conversations, figure out what actually can work better, right? So third of my talent is system thinking and design. Third is tinkering with solutions. And third is communication with diverse groups of people, translating their points of view into something they all can relate to and something that can then be translated into a solution. So this is who I wanna work with and spend my days with.
9:24 Speaker 00 Question number three, who do you want or what do you want to be accountable for? So how do you want your work to be measured? For me, it's results, it's real change, it impact I wanna see in the world. Imagine this, and I often have this picture in my head, like I'm sitting on some bench and I'm looking at the world at people walking around me, kind of, you know, like people and world watching and thinking to myself, you know, because of me, this shit works better, like the world just works smoother. And then maybe, you know, also observing and taking notes and thinking about how to make things even better.
10:07 Speaker 00 So this is what I want to be accountable for, a real change in the world, helping people thrive, helping clients, helping others have access to more opportunities, creating outcomes that last, systems that outlast me when I'm no longer here in the room, building sustainable systems that keep on giving, expanding our collective knowledge. There's things I care about and I wanna be accountable for difference in these domains. I wanna be useful, I wanna make a dent in the world. One might say, don't we all? Well, actually, no. And if you're listening to this podcast, you might be, there is a high probability that you are one of those people who wants to make a dent in the world.
10:52 Speaker 00 But believe me, that's not how most of the people think. Question number four, in the service of what? Like, I personally believe that, well, let me tell you a story first. A client asked me just a couple of days ago, I didn't feel like I'm making a difference. And this is a successful business owner who is making a difference. Even though sometimes we think that our work is not as important as something that somebody else does, changing the world and impact thousands of people, right? So the client asked, or shared, I don't feel like I'm making a difference. How do I have a bigger impact? You know, thousands of people and all, not just my clients.
11:34 Speaker 00 And then I asked him, well, who do you want to impact and help? And why? It's probably not all of the people. The why matters. I personally believe that we care most about the things that once caused us pain. Like, we felt, you know, that pain should not exist in the world. And this is the caring that naturally comes to us. You're like, you know, I want to make this part of the world better. I suffered from it and I don't want others to suffer. That's a very common narrative. I think we are sort of designed to be that way, to see what's not working in the world, especially if it caused you pain and wanting to make it better for others.
12:20 Speaker 00 For me, two things stood out and emerged over the course of my life. Number one, potential left unexplored. ChatGPT put it so well in just three words, potential left unexplored. I always wanted to do so much in my life, like I wake up and I want to do stuff. And I feel like I still feel this. And for a long time, I felt as a kid, as a teenager, that I just couldn't do everything I wanted to do. Like, grown country, not enough money, not enough access, so much time wasted figuring out to just how to find the fit and opportunity to express all of that desire. Instead of just letting my potential go into full bloom and apply it to what, to some meaningful stuff.
13:06 Speaker 00 In the world, right? Instead of that, you're just kind of like trying to break free from all of this stuff. So you could finally do what it is you were designed to do. So potential left unexplored. I feel we need much better systems to helping people to just do what they wanna do. And go get out there and solve problems, the capital, the education, the network, the people, like whatever it is. People need to develop their potential and apply it. I feel like we need to do a much better job. And I wanna create systems which allow to do that. And I somehow know that I'll have the opportunity to contribute to that.
13:47 Speaker 00 And then the second thing, theme that stood out, that I care deeply about, systems that harm instead of help. I hate seeing people and I experience that on myself, on my sister, on my family. And I see people all the time just suffering. Their life energy stuck in loops, bad food, toxic habits, addiction, passive distraction. When all it might take is one notch to move them toward health and purpose and possibility. And yes, expressing more of their potential. I believe we can design the world as a garden for human potential, not just scatter the seeds and hope for the best.
14:28 Speaker 00 I feel we humans have this unique potential to cultivate that garden. And we should strive to do our best to do so. So that was me. Now it's your turn. So which way from here? Before we sum up and review the questions, so they're better in your memory. Obviously, you can always re-listen, even do it with other people as an exercise. And do this exercise together again with your family, with your team, in your team, in your organization. People do need to think about changing their ways and figuring out where to go next. So they could contribute the most of their potential to the task.
15:11 Speaker 00 So your organization could thrive, your cause could thrive, or your family could. So amazing questions to go through, not just by yourself, but also with people around you, people that you lead or people who you live with or encounter in your day to day life. Before we jump into repeating the questions, guys, don't forget to rate, review. So this podcast goes into more years and we contribute to cultivating this kind of thinking. Then then creates the desire to go out there and change things. And by sharing this podcast, you are also contributing to making this world better. One pair of ears at a time. So rate, review, share.
15:53 Speaker 00 And of course, do the exercise. Question number one, what do you physically want to do in your day to day job, right? What does your ideal job transition business look like? Question number two, who do you want to work with? Who do you want to spend your time with while doing your work? Number three, who do what? What? Not who. The question about who was the second one. Who do you want to work with? And then the third, what do you want to be accountable for? How your work, how do you want your work to be measured? A success or failure or progress, right? So what do you want to be accountable for?
16:33 Speaker 00 And then in the service of what? What cause or suffering or injustice? What do you care about? So what do you want to dedicate your talents, your work days to? So in service of what? Four questions to reroute your career, your business from a brilliant behavioral scientist, Matt Waller, who's gonna be on our podcast very, very soon. Making out your next chapter. That is what this podcast was all about. Please share, review, rate. Thank you for your attention, for your urge or your desire to improve. And till next time, stay tuned and keep growing.
Previous Finding Direction in the Midst of Transformation: how to move forward when you don't know where you are going. Pacts, not goals. Next Designing thriving cultures that deliver performance with Anish Padinjaroote from Fractal AI. The Secret OS of Great Companies. Page updated November 11, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated