# #516 Dr. Irena O'Brien: Why Does Change Feel So Hard?

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Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/21st-century-entrepreneurship-6829325/516-dr-irena-o-brien-why-does-change-feel-so-hard.md
Podcast: [21st Century Entrepreneurship](https://stenobird.com/podcast/21st-century-entrepreneurship-6829325)
Published: 2026-05-11T17:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/www.buzzsprout.com/2328218/episodes/19158870-516-dr-irena-o-brien-why-does-change-feel-so-hard.mp3
Audio file: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/www.buzzsprout.com/2328218/episodes/19158870-516-dr-irena-o-brien-why-does-change-feel-so-hard.mp3
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Duration seconds: 896

## Resource

Dr. Irena O'Brien is a cognitive neuroscientist and founder of the neuroscience school, and we spoke about how the brain shapes change, leadership, energy, and performance before we are even consciously aware of it. Her work helps coaches and helping professionals understand why “the brain's first job is survival” and why change often fails when we treat it only as mindset, motivation, or willpower. Irena explains the brain as a prediction engine: it uses past experience to estimate whether s...

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