Author argues older brains can learn new tricks
Posted on 17 March 2012
By Mark Miller
Permanent URL of this article: http://retirementrevised.com/career/author-argues-older-brains-can-learn-new-tricks
Mark Walton, author of "Boundless Potential"
The Great Recession has left millions of midlife Americans up a creek without a paddle. Having lost jobs at the peak of their careers, they must find new work for the second half of their lives. Many will likely need to reinvent their careers — and may consider themselves too old to embark on something new.
Mark Walton begs to disagree.
The former CNN correspondent transformed his own career 20 years ago by becoming a Fortune 100 leadership consultant. Now 61, Walton has spent the past five years studying people who transformed their careers successfully in their 50s or early 60s, and invented new ways of working that extended into their 70s, 80s or even 90s.
A growing body of neuroscience research suggests that older dogs can learn new tricks, and that they can do it better than the young ones.
Walton elaborates on how the scientific research connects with the real life experiences of successful midlife transformations in his new book, Boundless Potential: Transform Your Brain, Unleash Your Talents, Reinvent Your Work in Midlife and Beyond (McGraw-Hill).
He concludes that our brains are wired not for retirement, but for constant reinvention. And that seniors can tap extraordinary creative and intellectual powers in the second half of life — if they put in the required work.
Learn more in my column this week at Reuters Money.
