Competitive Edge

Use It or Lose It: 6 Tips to Maintain Your Competitive Edge As You Age
By Roger Seip

If you believe that accelerated loss of your mental acuity is inevitable with age, and that the loss of your competitive edge is certain to accompany that memory loss, you're not alone. But you are wrong. Age does have some effect on memory, but it's not an especially significant factor. Nonetheless, people tend to use their age as an excuse for poor or weakened performance. In fact, the opposite is true: For most people in business, the prime earning years are their 40s and 50s because they have invaluable maturity and experience. However, sometimes people in middle age enter a very self-defeating cycle, doubting themselves and losing confidence in their abilities.

Be Like Mike…With Your Brain

No matter what your age, developing or training the memory is, in many ways, like playing a sport. Consider basketball: Although certain individuals are undoubtedly genetically more gifted ballplayers - they're 7 feet tall, extremely strong, very fast, and have great hand-eye coordination - anyone can learn to play basketball reasonably well, with training and a lot of practice, even if you're 5'2" and not much of a jumper.

People commonly misperceive memory as a talent, not a skill. While some people do possess the genetic gift of a brain wired for superior recall, the truth is that everybody can make major improvements in their memory function with training and practice regardless of age, education, IQ, or any other factor. You're not going to be a superstar professional athlete without some God-given talent, but most people, when it comes to using their brains, don't need to be superstars; they just want to lead productive lives. And that is definitely achievable.

Older Really Can Mean Wiser

Age is a factor in training your physical body, and it's no different when training your brain. Although few people can run a mile faster at age 40 than they could at age 20, if you're motivated and committed, you can still run a pretty darn fast mile at age 40. Your results will be quicker and more dramatic when you're younger, but a very inspiring key difference between athletic training and brain training is that while you can't get stronger, faster, and more coordinated as you get older, it's totally realistic to expect to continue to grow wiser - more effective mentally - in later years.

Wiser is fine, but doesn't everyone inevitably get more forgetful when they age? Yes, hormonal changes as we age do have some impact on our memories, but people tend to blow this factor way out of proportion and make it way more of an issue than it really is. In most cases, you're actually not more forgetful than you ever were; you just notice more when you are forgetful.