All self-improvement authors, coaches, and even proponents of the niche high performance-mentoring, like myself, say that everybody can improve. And as a possibility, it is, of course, true.
In reality, however, the younger the person, the more impressive results and breakthroughs we accomplish. Some think it is because more mature professionals are set in their ways, unwilling to acquire new skills, and unable to learn new tricks or develop new modes of thinking.
It all got the seal of verification when none other than Elon Musk answered why he is uninterested in the life-prolongation industry, although it is a quest with both humanitarian and economic potential. His response (loosely described here) was that there is no need to prolong old ideas and their proponents on earth when we need new ones so badly. Evidently, even top professionals cannot keep up after a certain age…
Although he has a point, such an approach reveals part of the story. Because it is not a disadvantage older people have but an advantage younger people usually possess: they have no past to defend! It explains why many mature professionals spend more mental and emotional energy justifying their past choices instead of searching for new avenues.
A supercomputer whose sole task is to maintain our levels of contentment and relative happiness balanced, our brain (when on ‘auto’ mode) will not tell us what to do for success. Instead, it creates scenarios (for the future) and interpretations (for the past) to navigate the present within the parameters of emotional security.
Mr. Musk correctly identified a problem, implying that there is no need to re-elect a President (either one) who is pre-destined to govern in the manner he already has, especially in our time and age of rapid technological advancements that only specific branches can keep up with.
But his thinking fails (in part) by identifying the problem with biological age. If that were true, most proteges and wonder-children wouldn’t have been burned out later on in their mid-20s or 30s, but they do. Because although they are still young professionals in their 30s, their past is already extensive and rich with success, in need of being defended…
Similarly, as we have repeatedly seen, a 65-year-old can enjoy unprecedented success and happiness and reach the next level in his mid-80s, only by embracing change. Therefore, prolonging life and physical health will prove a true elixir to those who also expect to develop their mental capacities further as they keep re-inventing themselves, while some of the youngest professionals might sit on past accolades, in a way, already ‘dead.’
In the end, regardless of whether one is young or older, what will matter the most will be how preoccupied you are with the future. Such a life is always worth living.
This post is not about how mental or physical care should be distributed within populations. It is about what top professionals must do to stay competitive and relevant. Both the young and the old have a chance as long as they stop defending whatever past they have.