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I turned 55 this year. I’ve dreaded this birthday for fifteen years because of one word: Neuroplasticity.
Is that a microplastic that we’re all ingesting? Something you get from swimming in amoeba-infested waters? A phantom concussion from banging my head against the wall as a Philadelphia Eagles fan for so many years before they won the Super Bowl?
No. Neuroplasticity is the turning point in our lives where our ability to learn new things and adapt begins to wane.
In 2010, I attended a lecture by Dr. Andrew Lo that delivered a stark message: Our brain functionality typically peaks at 54. Meaning that this year, as I transitioned from age 54 to 55, I reached the end of “Peak Me.” Now that I have blown out this year’s birthday candles, my mental capabilities have begun to drift down that neuroplasticity slide.
Imagining my future self to guide my future direction
That 2010 lecture was the first time I truly imagined my future self—one of the core themes of Age Against the Machine. While imagining your future self can be unsettling, it also helps drive better decision-making before you are on the other side of Peak You.
That’s how I used that moment. Although Dr. Lo’s presentation left an almost physical mark on my brain, it also gave me a roadmap for planning my future. I used it to guide my life as a financial advisor specializing in aging, health, and managing the financial challenges that come with advancing age and declining health. Over the years, I have devoted my professional life to helping my clients and their loved ones prepare for aging in real, concrete ways instead of ignoring it or wishing it away or putting off hard but necessary decisions—what I call procrastinaging.
And yet…55. The birthday still hangs over me. The thought of drifting away from Peak Me is difficult to face because there’s a slippery quality to aging that makes it nearly impossible for any of us to understand it fully, no matter how much we prepare.
“Some things are too important to be taken seriously”
Does it mean there is no fighting against neuroplasticity, against our decline? Should we just pack it up on day 364 of our 54th year?
Absolutely not. Because there is a silver lining. This age is also the time when our crystallized intelligence, the ability to draw quick insights from decades of experience, becomes most reliable.
I’d like to use this space to share insights from my decades of experience to help you identify and follow through with the things that need to be done amid all the noise, urgencies, trade-offs, and other distractions that come with the inexorable advance of time.
I also want us to explore this together, because sharing what I’ve learned will help me make peace with what I’ve learned—that while I may be drifting from Peak Me, I still have a lot to offer after 55. I can use every trick, tool, and bit of humor I can muster to fight the gravity of the neuroplasticity slide, even if I can’t get off it.
And as Oscar Wilde said about some things being too important to be taken seriously, I plan to do this in a way that’s hopeful and humorous, even when confronting difficult subjects. I hope you’ll join me on the journey.
However, don’t hold it against me if my birthday wish was for another 15 years of Peak Me. It probably didn’t work, but it doesn’t hurt to try.
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