Jay Eagen, Certified Professional Coach
Energy Leadership Index -- Master Practitioner
COR.E Dynamics / Transitions Dynamics Specialist
A space to slow down and literally "connect the dots." Learn more about energy leadership, lessons from local heroes, and more.
Do we even know the difference? Stanford Professor Shirzad Chamine shares his research on how we can see the difference and bring it forward in our lives. His Ted Talk helps understand why as adults we've forgotten our magnificent selves and how to get it back.
Involution Coaching “Connecting the Dots”
Life Learning Insights Series
Life Transitions: Insights from
The Mature Mind, The Positive Power of the Aging Brain
by Dr. Gene D. Cohen
I came across Dr. Cohen’s book at the recommendation of a college friend who had retired early and was sorting out his plans for the next third of life. Considering elements of the content, it’s a surprisingly easy to read book that mixes Dr. Cohen’s sociological work on aging with explanations of the physical properties of the human brain as we grow older.
There are five key takeaways from the book that apply to those thinking about what life will be like at 50 and beyond, whether you have reached that point in your life or not.
Insight #1: The prospects for remaining highly effective in a multitude of ways in life as we age are very good. The book paints a positive picture of both our options for life and research about the capabilities of the human brain. Dr. Cohen coins a term of what he calls our “inner push” to undertake and do things at this juncture in life.
Insight #2: From a macro perspective, Dr. Cohen presents an insightful four phase model of psychological development in the second half of human life: (1) midlife reevaluation (40s through 60s), which he makes clear is different from the so-called ‘midlife crisis’, which he argues is largely a myth; (2) liberation (late 50s, 60s & early 70s), freeing ourselves from earlier inhibitions or limitations; (3) summing up, (60s through 70s and 80s), “a time of recapitulation, resolution and review;” and, (4) encore, “not a swan song . . . but a desire to go on, even in the face of adversity or loss.”
I’ve been through midlife reevaluation experiences, perhaps a couple of times. The most specific came when my wife’s father passed on Christmas eve. While driving home from the funeral, we re-evaluated our priorities and made a decision to change our lives. I was pretty much a workaholic who made family time a secondary priority. Our son was of the age where either I was going to be there or not, with implications for whether we would have a close relationship. I was conflicted about making a work change. When I asked my wife what we should do, she responded, “life is short.” We made major changes based on that principle – the re-evaluation was that we needed better balance in our lives, especially me. Fortunately, we found it before it was too late.
Insight #3: Dr. Cohen shares extensive information about modern research into the capabilities of the aging human brain. Simply put, our older brains have continued to grow and have abilities that younger persons don’t. Specifically, adult brains have grown connections between the two lobes such that we can use them simultaneously; younger less mature brains don’t yet have those connections. The dual capability allows the brain to process in a manner that we know as “wisdom.”
Insight #4: Dr. Cohen shares dozens of examples from his research interviews of amazing things people have done later in life, many of them embarking on journeys for the first time after having lived completely different vocations. My personal favorite is the story of Maria Anne Smith of Australia, a grower of fruits. At age sixty-nine, she uncovered a seedling rising from a crabapple scrap pile, cultivated it into a tree and propagated it with other orchards as it presented unique properties from other apple varieties. It became the apple that we all know today as the Granny Smith apple.
Insight #5: Chapter 7 of The Mature Mind, titled Reinventing Retirement provides a Retirement Readiness Quotient tool based on 12 questions with a rating scale. While there are lots of other tools available for such decision-making, starting with this as an initial baseline measure of one’s readiness for change would be worth the 15 minutes it will take.
Final Insight: And this is my own personal takeaway . . . I had a shift in perspective from seeing the progression to later life as one of decline and limitations to one of optimism and opportunity. There’s no guarantee of anything in life. The Cohen four phases model, the information on the higher capabilities of the mature brain along with the inspiring examples of what people have accomplished later in life is very energizing.
Ultimately, each of us has a choice of how to live our lives. The Mature Mind establishes quite convincingly that the cogent experiences of many others along with the capabilities of our maturing brains presents myriad opportunities to do amazing things, as we so choose!
Shawn's fast & fun Ted Talk makes the case that 90% of happiness is internal, while only 10% is external. We're taught that we have to be successful first in order to be happy, which is backwards. Happy, positive people "see stress as a challenge rather than a threat." His research shows that lasting positive change in the way our brains think comes from:
* Gratitude
* Journaling
* Exercise
* Meditation (even very brief)
* Random acts of kindness!