4. Manage your stress in the moment

Stress is the number one killer of your recall. If you can't immediately remember something, don't freak out. Just take a deep breath and think positively that eventually you will remember. Tell yourself, "I know this. It will come to me."

5. Exercise your brain and body

Research shows that a combination of mental and physical activities can protect your memory and help keep you alert. Overall physical health will translate into overall mental health, better memory, and sharper mental faculties all around. Exercise maintains heart health and opens blood vessels; in turn, brain cells get the nutrients that ensure peak performance. Exercise your brain, too, by doing crossword puzzles, solving brain teasers or playing Sudoku. Mental games and exercises have been proven to have a definite effect on mental agility as people age. Reading good, challenging books that make you think is also an essential mental exercise to stay sharp. Also get sufficient sleep and take a vacation every once in awhile.

6. Train your brain

Exercising a muscle means you're using it, but not pushing it beyond its limits. Training involves going beyond where you've ever gone before. To train a bicep to be stronger, for example, you have to lift a weight that's heavier than one you've lifted before, or you lift it more times than you previously have. You must push it beyond its current limits. It's the same with your brain; you must continuously challenge your brain by learning new things. It doesn't really matter what you learn: cooking, a foreign language, history - anything so long as it's new. With the Brain, It's No Pain, No Gain

While it may be uncomfortable at times - just as when you're training your body to be stronger - you must choose the pain of discipline over comfort if you want to maintain a competitive edge. Growing pains aren't nearly as bad as losing out to your competition or feelings of decrepitude, uselessness, or regret. If you can endure a little bit of pain every day as you take the steps necessary to add mental acuity to the wisdom and experience you've acquired with age, you will find that old advertising slogan is true: You're not getting older. You really are getting better!