What to do when skill and energy wane

On a late-night flight, the author heard a woman a row behind say to her husband in a voice full of anguish: “It is not true that no one needs you anymore.” And a moment later: “Oh, stop saying it would be better if you were dead.”

The author’s initial reaction was to think the husband must be someone who had worked hard all his life in relative obscurity and was now regretting the passing of youth and its opportunities. But when he sneaked a look at the person behind him, he found it was someone who had been a national hero several decades ago.

That set him thinking: Why would someone so rich and famous be so full of regret? It also forced him to take a hard look at his own life. He was 48, the chief executive officer of a Washington think tank, and the author of a few bestsellers—a successful man by any measure. Yet he increasingly felt the party wouldn’t last: Sustaining the 80plus-hour work week required to keep his current position was becoming difficult.

That led him to this book’s central theme: When professional and physical decline set in, what does one do? The author resigned his position and set out on a quest to find an answer to what he labels “the striver’s curse”. When professionals in their late forties and early fifties find their skills and abilities ebbing, they respond by working harder.

But it is like swimming against the tide.

In youth the world appears infinite in its possibilities. Whichever path you take, it seems to open up for you. But increasingly from middle age onward, the realm of possibilities appears to shrink and the world seems to close in upon you.

If you are experiencing any decline in abilities, the first thing to know is that you are not alone. Take the example of Charles Darwin. At 22 (1831), he set out on a voyage around the world. Over the next five years, he collected and sent all kinds of new and unknown specimens of plants and animals back to England, causing much fascination within both the scientific community and the public at large. In 1859, he published Ontheoriginof Species, containing his theory of natural selection. It made him a national hero.

After that, his research hit a wall. Try as he did, he couldn’t make any progress. Only scientific research and discoveries gave him joy. When that ability was snatched from him, he found life wearisome and died an unhappy man.

The author was an early victim to this phenomenon. An accomplished French horn player, he left college at 19 to join a touring ensemble that played chamber music, often playing in a hundred concerts a year. But in his early 20s, quite inexplicably his musical skills began to decline. Pieces that he had played with ease earlier became difficult. And those that had been difficult turned impossible. He practised harder and took lessons from teachers, hoping for a turnaround. It never happened.

After trying doggedly for years, he gave up, finished graduation through distance learning at 30, did a Masters and a PHD. He became an academic (at Harvard, no less) in social science. He says he was lucky he experienced his decline early, which gave him an opportunity to switch careers.

But ageing, according to Arthur C

Brooks, is not all From Strength to

bad news. Human Strength: Finding

beings, he says, Success, Happiness

possess two kinds and Deep Purpose in

of intelligence. The the Second Half of Life

first is fluid Author: Arthur C

intelligence, which Brooks

enables us to Publisher: Green reason, think

Tree/ Bloomsbury flexibly, and solve Pages: 272 problems. This is Price: ~1,439 the intelligence

that makes people successful in their youth and which begins to ebb from midlife (sometimes earlier).

But we also possess crystallised intelligence, which comes from accumulating a vast store of knowledge. In youth, we have a greater ability to innovate. But in old age, crystallised intelligence makes us better at synthesising information, and also at applying other peoples’ ideas. Crystallised intelligence favours certain careers such as teaching.

The author says a second curve exists. But it requires that we give up our success addiction—the endless pursuit of money, power, and prestige. Instead, he says, our accumulated wisdom should be devoted to pursuits like teaching, mentoring youth, and more broadly, in the service of society.

One’s initial reaction to this book might be: “Oh, I am in my fifties and have never felt better.” But it is hard to argue with its central thrust. With life spans increasing, all of us need to consciously plan our second innings. Pining for the glories of youth, refusing to pass the baton on to the younger generation, or vegetating before the television screen won’t cut it. This book has a lot to offer those past the midpoint of their lives.