In his 2022 bestseller, “From Power to Power: Discovering Success, Happiness, and Deep Objective within the Second Half of Life,” Harvard professor Arthur Brooks outlines a technique to actually assist folks get higher with age. Primarily based on exhaustive analysis, Brooks gives a roadmap for folks to reimagine their lives after the age of fifty in ways in which present extra goal and which means. At a time when many start to query their relevance and whether or not time has handed them by, Brooks gives an inspiring look into getting old that turns the standard view of the second half of life on its head.
Brooks’s important premise is that when people transition from what he calls “fluid intelligence” to “crystallized intelligence,” they encounter a second curve, a time in life when knowledge and expertise tends to trump expertise and arduous work. On this second curve, persons are extra more likely to discover pleasure and satisfaction in experiences moderately than achievements, and in supporting others moderately than selling themselves.
Just lately, I’ve been reflecting on Brooks’s concepts within the context of my life as an getting old long-distance runner. I distinctly recall a time about 10 years in the past once I felt myself present process a gradual transition from fluid intelligence to crystallized intelligence. I used to be experiencing the everyday slow-down that’s a part of rising older — accidents had been piling up, and the robust urge to compete, an urge that characterised a lot of my working life in my thirties and early forties, was fading. I used to be transitioning to my second curve. In that second, I needed to settle for the truth that, whether or not I preferred it or not, my aggressive days had been behind me and that for me to stay energetic within the sport I wanted to embrace a brand new model of myself — a model of myself that was generative.
AJW working in Colorado in 2020. Photograph: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
On account of this era of acceptance, I turned extra dedicated to my teaching observe. I spent extra time volunteering at occasions and fewer time competing in them. I spent extra time learning the science of the game and fewer time specializing in the artwork of the game. And, maybe most of all, I spent increasingly more time sharing with others my previous experiences within the sport moderately than instantly experiencing the game myself. It was a transcendent course of and one which has allowed me to proceed to expertise the enjoyment and magic of path working and ultrarunning lengthy after my days as a competitor have ended.
As Brooks suggests on the finish of “From Power to Power,” transitioning to the second curve will not be straightforward and may really feel nearly unattainable for some. It requires us to make ourselves weak and content material with the truth that getting old includes deterioration. Whereas the considered deterioration could be disturbing at first, as soon as accepted, vulnerability and deterioration change into superpowers and permit us to share our expertise and knowledge with the world in ways in which solely those that’ve been by means of years and years of life and residing can do.
Bottoms up!
Dr. Terrie Wurzbacher throughout the 2021 Vol State 500k, then aged 72. Photograph courtesy of Terrie Wurzbacher.
AJW’s Beer of the Week
This week’s beer of the week comes from Rogue Ales and Spirits in Newport, Oregon. Rogue’s Honey Kolsch is a lightweight and crisp beer with only a trace of sweetness. Brewed with pure Oregon honey, this can be a contemporary take an the standard Kolsch selection and is an ideal late summer season beer.
Name for Feedback
- Are you a runner on that “second curve?”
- Would you wish to share how this part of life goes for you?
