“Devote the back half of your life to serving others with your wisdom. Get old sharing the things you believe are most important.” Arthur C. Brooks
This post is based on an email I wrote way back at the beginning of 2023. I thought I’d share the key points again, as they’re something we all have to deal with in our work life.
In his book, From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life, (Amazon Kindle link) Arthur C. Brooks informs us that “in practically every high-skill profession, decline sets in sometime between one’s late thirties and early fifties.” And, the more accomplished one is at the peak of their career, the stronger the decline.
For proof, Brooks cites examples from various professions — elite athletes, Nobel prize-winning scientists, physicians, writers, financial professionals, and others. All tend to reach peak performance by their mid-thirties. Their skills decline sharply as time goes on.
So, when it comes to the skills we worked so hard to build, that brought us success, we can expect significant decline as early as our thirties, or as late as our fifties.
Ugh! Are you doing math? How much time do you have left? More likely, how far into skill decline are you?
The Second Curve
According to Brooks, we have three choices:
- We can deny the facts and rage against our decline.
- We can give in to decline and accept aging as an unavoidable tragedy.
- We can accept that what got us here won’t work in the future, and build new strengths and skills.
Choosing number 3, of course, is what Brooks suggests. There are actually some specific ways in which we naturally get smarter and more skillful, which can transform our decline into new success.
The secret is our crystallized intelligence — the ability to use the knowledge we’ve accumulated. It’s the “second curve,” as opposed to our first curve of fluid intelligence — the ability to solve abstract problems.
When we’re young, we have “raw smarts” and can generate lots of facts; when we’re older, we have wisdom, which allows us to know what the facts mean and how to use them.
Crystallized intelligence is a whole different discipline from fluid intelligence. It’s not about answering someone else’s questions. Rather it’s about figuring out what the right questions are and assembling a team to tackle them. We go from subject matter experts to strategic advisors and master teachers.
Our crystallized intelligence increases through our 40s and 50s, and stays high into our 60s and 70s, and even into our 80s.
So, if you can repurpose your career to rely more on crystallized intelligence, your peak will come later and will last much longer. And, your value to people who matter will be enhanced. That’s powerful!
A version of this post was sent earlier to my email newsletter subscribers. If you’d like to get my best work first, subscribe to the newsletter. I NEVER share your information, and you can unsubscribe at any time if it’s not a good fit.
If you’re struggling with how to achieve your career goals let’s chat about how I can help. You can use this link to my calendar to schedule the best time to talk.
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