The Daily Practice That Could Rewire Your Brain | Timm Chiusano | TED

Hi, my name is Tim. I'm addicted to appreciation.

I know that sounds really strange. But if I do my job over the next eight minutes or so, you're not going to look at anything the same way ever again.

And because of a manhole cover that I saw back on a terrible day in 2018. It was quite literally one of the top three worst days of my entire career.

One of those comically miserable days in corporate America.

I was managing a team of 270 people. Everybody seemed to have a meltdown on the same exact day, at the same exact time.

Eight hours of unnecessarily contentious meetings, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about, and there were pending layoffs coming that spring.

I was one of the few people in the company that knew that they were coming, too.

So the dread in the overwhelm was just hanging over me.

I get off the subway, late again for dinner, and of course, I check my phone immediately, and there's an email from my boss that says, “Be in the office at 9am tomorrow morning, and be prepared for that meeting to suck." Like, great.

(Laughter) As I'm walking home, I go, "Ooh, a manhole cover.

You know, it's pretty cool that somebody figured out that they would be safer if they were circles instead of squares.

And I'm pretty sure that they're made in India, too, which is interesting, considering we're in New York City.

I should look that up later." I’m like, “Tim, what the F?

How in the world did you go from all these overwhelming thoughts on such a terrible day to a manhole cover?" Like this is a sincere question in the moment.

Am I an idiot? Like how is my brain going from one place to another?

Is this the part of my brain that was holding me back?

Very serious corporate job. Is this the part of my brain that is distracting me, that is not allowing me to grow further than where I was?