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Thriving after 45: is the best still to come?
Neuroscience shows that business-critical cognitive skills can peak after middle-age – but only if we prioritize brain health.
Social lore tells us that when we hit middle age, it’s game over. Decline is inexorable. Our bodies slow and fail, mental acuity frays, and the slow march into decrepitude begins. Hit 45, says accepted wisdom, and it’s downhill all the way.
Certainly, with age come immense changes. We know that different physical and cognitive functions are affected by age and will shift and decline over time. But is it always the case that in mid-life we have less to offer than we did in our 30s, say? Are the contributions we can make less valuable as we get older? Or could different capabilities come to the fore – new strengths that emerge with age?
Over the last 10 or so years, I have analyzed and reviewed a growing body of research that spans neuroscience, psychiatry, psychology, and the study of adult development. Collating and aggregating the work of Harvard’s Robert Kegan, scientists at MIT, Stanford, and The Center for BrainHealth at the University of Texas at Dallas among others, I’ve found something striking: certain cognitive abilities can peak much later in life than we previously understood or believed.
The evidence suggests that business-critical processes – integrative or transformative reasoning, focus, creative problem-solving, innovative thinking, and social and emotional intelligence among them – can hit optimal performance from 45 onwards, really coming into their own as we enter our 50s, 60s, and on into our 70s.
Now, none of this is a given. We still have to put in the work to optimize brain performance. And that means opting for the right lifestyle choices and prioritizing certain cognitive strategies that fuel brain health.
Nonetheless, science is sending us a welcome message and one that certainly would debunk the notion that it’s game over at 45. Indeed, to paraphrase Carl Jung, it might just be that life begins at 40 after all, and until then, we’re “just doing the research.”
So, what does the neuroscience tell us?
Neuroscience and the aging brain
Synthesizing the data, I’ve been able to determine brain function commonly displayed at key phases in the human life cycle and map them to different cognitive abilities, strengths, and weaknesses (or decline). I define the different phases or windows like this:
- Undergrad brain: 18 to 20s
- Adult brain: 25 or so
- MBA brain: 30s
- Critical window: 40–45
- Strategic brain: 45–55
- Transforming brain: 55–65
- Chairperson’s brain: 65+
At each of these phases, the research shows us that many critical abilities may truly start to bloom, even as others decline:
- Undergrad brain: Working and detailed memory peaks when we are in our late teens and early 20s as the brain reaches peak processing speed, however, our ability to focus is not yet optimal.
- Adult brain: Neural connections now crystalize in the brain, forming a kind of foundation or “tree trunk” that is unlikely to change much as we age. However, everything that sits around this core will evolve and transform in response to new stimuli throughout life.
- MBA brain: Here we reach a point where short-term memory, including visual memory and facial recognition, is optimal, and we can manipulate what’s in our memory with optimal ease and at peak speed.
- Critical window: This is one of life’s great inflection points. In our mid-40s we have the potential to begin forming our mature mind. Rather than inevitable decline, this is when we have the opportunity to start building higher-order cognitive abilities that can become unique strengths as we get older.
- Strategic brain: In our late 40s and 50s, fueled by life’s experience, the brain can become far more adept at managing complexity. This is when we are also better at unshackling our thinking from external influence or groupthink – we can deploy our internal compass to greater effect. Now, our focus, strategic attention and ability to read emotion can peak, even as working memory or spatial awareness declines.
As we reach mid-life, business-critical cognitive capabilities may now start to peak. This is how things can pan out from 55 onwards:
Transforming brain:
Even as the brain’s processing speed starts slowing in mid-life, transformative thinking or integrative reasoning – what Sandra Bond Chapman of The Center for BrainHealth calls our “platinum cognitive function” – can come to the fore. Transformative thinking enables us to connect what we’ve learned in the past to new stimuli, information, and challenges, integrating experience to generate smarter, more creative solutions. Put another way, our greater experience can not only keep us relevant but empower us to transform the way we approach new challenges and problems.
Between 55 and 65, we have greater potential to integrate past and present to reformulate, redesign, move forward into new contexts, apply, and succeed.
This is when our transformative thinking can really peak. So too can innovation and the ability to make entirely new connections. In our mid-60s we have the potential to look at the world in ways that our younger, less complex form of mind could not. It turns out that creativity, originality, and insight – all of these good things – can reach their zenith at the average age of 62, fueled by our experience of life. Meanwhile, innovative and creative thinking are skills and capabilities that can be developed further and faster than any other cognitive ability, often blossoming as we age.
The research also shows that our ability to form relationships can improve as the brain ages; a function of our shifting perception of time. Simply put, we don’t have time to hang onto the grudges or upset that might have characterized our 30s.
Chairperson’s brain:
Focus and vocabulary will typically start to decline as we reach our 70s and upwards, however, we can excel in transformative thinking if we continue to nurture brain health. Moreover, the evidence suggests that our capacity for abstract thought can peak in this window, meaning that we have the potential to grasp complex ideas and concepts faster and with greater acuity at 70 than at 35.
“Reaping these benefits is contingent on making choices, adopting, and focusing on science-backed practices that can boost brain health.”
What does all this mean for you?
As your brain matures in mid-life and onwards, your ability to sift the learnings from your life and experience can help you reframe, reformulate, and devise innovative solutions. You possess deep potential to think more abstractly and independently, process complexity more effectively, make sense of things and people with greater speed and acuity, and forge stronger relationships and collaborations.
In a context where AI and digital disruption are reconfiguring business models, reshaping the world of work, and challenging human beings to rethink the value we can create, these business-critical skills are more important than ever before.
However, this is not a given nor is it automatic. Reaping these benefits is contingent on making choices, adopting, and focusing on science-backed practices that can boost brain health.
To be very clear, brain health is not the same as mental health.
Brain health is not just the absence of brain injury, disease, or decline, but also the ability to perform executive functions optimally: sustain strategic thinking; exercise sound judgment; adapt with agility; manage complexity; remain connected emotionally and socially; think innovatively; and suppress distractions to deliver high cognitive performance in demanding contexts and environments.
Optimizing your brain health as you age
The human brain consumes 20% of our energy every day – running a marathon doesn’t even come close.
As we continue to adapt, stay relevant, and reposition ourselves to succeed, neuroplasticity – the brain’s ability to form new neural connections or change existing ones – is an extraordinarily energy-hungry process. Fueling this process adequately means prioritizing what I call the brain health trinity: fitness, diet, and sleep.
A first rule of thumb then is to build exercise into our routines and to ensure that we are eating a balanced and high-quality diet with the minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants to promote brain maintenance and function.
Sleep hygiene is of paramount importance, and securing those essential eight hours a night might mean learning to minimize or eliminate screen time in the evenings. And this can be tricky. In our high-octane, high-pressure, always-on working world, it can be tempting to prioritize deadlines over downtime and results over repose. Yet peak brain performance demands that we get enough sleep – almost certainly more than most busy executives typically get in the average week.
Sleep, recovery, and recharging our brains become more important as we age. The hard-charging of our 20s or 30s – burning that candle at both ends and getting by on a few hours of shuteye – simply doesn’t pass muster in mid-life.
There are also specific exercises that you can do to strengthen brain function and help slow cognitive decline.
Just as you go to the gym to train your body, there are brain training interventions that will build and strengthen neural connections and superhighways that will facilitate higher-order thinking.
Brain training at the University of Texas
Andrew Nevin is Research Professor and Inaugural Director of The Brainomics Venture at The Center for BrainHealth at the University of Texas at Dallas. He defines neuroplasticity as the brain’s capacity to change at every moment based on both what is happening externally but also on how you use your brain. Neurogenesis in adults – the generation of new neurons in specific brain regions, especially the hippocampus – is influenced by mental activity, movement, sleep, and other factors. Brain health is a function of self-agency, says Andrew. He and his colleagues have found that we are the “architects” of our own brains, and as such, how you use your brain has the single greatest impact on whether it functions effectively. If you are not using your brain for higher-order, complex cognitive tasks, your brain will start to decline in mid-life. Andrew advocates certain practical interventions to improve brain health, performance, and executive function. At the Center for Brain Health, a range of training exercises focus on three pillars:
- Strategic attention
- Integrated reasoning
- Innovation
An example is “2 + 5 + 7 = Improved Brain Health.” Here’s how it works: 2x Expansive thinking: Twice a day, really think about a big challenge and come up with multiple ways to solve it. The challenge might be recruiting a new project leader or switching to a new supplier, say. Dedicate 40 minutes to expansive thinking every day.
5x Brain breaks: Schedule five microbreaks into the day: close your eyes, meditate for a few moments, or take a short walk. Your brain needs downtime to relax, restore, and recharge, so disconnect from technology, sit, and embrace silence and stillness.
7x Innovative problem-solving: Purposefully reframe an issue, problem, or process. Say it’s the way you run team meetings. Try to think of a new way you could lead them. Or look at a problem facing another team and think of ways you would frame and address it. Make a list of seven times you have tried to think differently about something you take for granted every day. “Higher-order brain training isn’t Sudoku, which is fun but will only forge specific neural connections related to the puzzle. Brain training is about increasing your complex reasoning and capabilities, and we have a comprehensive training program that anyone can access at the Center for Brain Health,” says Andrew. One tip he’d share with busy executives is this: don’t multitask. “When you multitask, your brain is switching between tasks which creates a neural load, so that you’re expending more cognitive energy than if you focus on a single task. You will be way more productive by staying on the task at hand!”
Besides brain training, there are techniques that we use in coaching that can help strengthen neuroplasticity, among them visualization, journaling, and breathing exercises.
Say you are a golfer about to swing a nine iron and hit the ball into the green, or a footballer lining up to take a penalty shot. Visualizing what you are about to do before you execute it will activate key neural connections and strengthen them via neuroplasticity to build focus. Neurons that fire together will wire together, making visualization is a powerful additional technique for strengthening those connections and brain performance.
Similarly, journaling, particularly gratitude journaling, triggers neuroplasticity processes by sharpening your focus on positive experiences and takeaways. This also helps enhance empathy, breaks negative thought patterns, improves decision-making, and positions you for greater impact as a leader.
Then there’s stress and innovative thinking. Creative problem-solving requires the brain to go broad and wide, but when we’re under pressure at work, feeling stressed or triggered by colleagues or circumstances we tend to become focused, and it’s that much harder to access the broader cognitive resources that power creativity. One of the easiest ways to shift gears and get out of this restrictive dynamic is breathwork. A simple example is to take two sharp nasal breaths, followed by a long, slow exhale through the mouth while you relax your muscles. It is about getting out of the cortisol-induced hyper-focused mode and allowing the brain to think more broadly, using a different network within the brain to come up with innovative answers and fresh responses.
Whichever path makes sense to you, be it coaching and visualization, breath regulation, creative journaling or writing, or building brain training exercises into your routines, it’s useful to remember the foundational importance of the brain health trinity and prioritize your sleep, fitness, and nutrition as you progress through life.
That message is: you can continue to develop and leverage the extraordinary capabilities of your employees into their 70s.
A few final thoughts for organizations
Emerging neuroscientific findings should be inspirational in the world in which we are living and working longer than ever before. And there’s a clear message here for organizations, I believe. That message is: you can continue to develop and leverage the extraordinary capabilities of your employees into their 70s.
You can win with older employees because, with the right investment, along with the right learning interventions, consideration, and support, this is the cohort that may be best placed to contribute the higher-order thinking and business-critical capabilities that your organization is going to need in the future.
Key to this will be letting go of the prevalent deficit model of human capabilities that sees many businesses cease to invest in people over the age of 50. It will mean reframing where value can be found in the organization and how it can be nurtured. And it will mean building a better understanding of the way that strategic skills can surface and blossom at different phases of the lifelong career. Organizations that figure this out first will have their pick of a valuable and business-critical crop.
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