Learn to come from behind
Progress toward your goals is never going to be a straight line. It will
always be a bumpy line. You'll go up and then come down a little. Two
steps forward and one step back.
There's a good rhythm in that. It is like a dance. There's no rhythm in a
straight line upward.
However, people get discouraged when they slide a step back after two
steps forward. They think they are failing, and that they've lost it. But
they have not. They're simply in step with the natural rhythm of
progress. Once you understand this rhythm, you can work with it
instead of against it. You can plan the step back.
In The Power of Optimism, Alan Loy McGinnis identifies the
characteristics of tough-minded optimists, and one of the most
important is that optimists always plan for renewal. They know in
advance that they are going to run out of energy. "In physics," says McGinnis, "the law of entropy
says that all systems, left unattended, will run down. Unless new energy
is pumped in, the organism will disintegrate."
Pessimists don't want to plan for renewal, because they don't think there
should have to be any. Pessimists are all-or-nothing thinkers. They're
always offended when the world is not perfect. They think taking a step
backward means something negative about the whole project. "If this
were a good marriage, we wouldn't have to rekindle the romance," a
pessimist would say, dismissing the idea of taking a second honeymoon.
But an optimist knows that there will be ups and downs. And an
optimist isn't scared or discouraged by the downs. In fact, an optimist
plans for the downs, and prepares creative ways to deal with them.
You can schedule your own comebacks. You can look ahead on your
calendar and block out time to refresh and renew and recover. Even if
you feel very "up" right now, it's smart to plan for renewal. Schedule
your own comeback while you're on top. Build in big periods of time to
get away—even to get away from what you love.
If you catch yourself thinking that you are too old to do something you
want to do, recognize that you are now listening to the pessimistic voice
inside of you.
It is not the voice of truth.
You can talk back. You can remind the voice of all the people in life
who have started their lives over again at any age they wanted to. John
Housman, the Emmy award-winning actor in The Paper Chase, started
acting professionally when he was in his 70s.
I had a friend named Art Hill, who spent most of his life in advertising.
In his heart, however, he always wanted to be a writer. So in his late
50s, he wrote two books that got published by a small publishing house
in
page_80
Page 81
Michigan. Then, when he was 60 years old, Hill had his first national
release with I Don't Care if I Never Come Back, a book about baseball
published by Simon and Schuster. The book was a popular and critical
success, and his dedication page is something I treasure above any
possession I own:
"To Steve Chandler—who cared about writing, cared about me, and one
day said, 'You should write a book about baseball.' "
Nobody cares how old you are but you. People only care about what
you can do, and you can do anything you want, at any age.
Dr. Monte Buchsbaum of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New
York has been one of many scientists conducting research into the
effects of aging on the brain. He is finding that it isn't aging that causes
a brain to become less sharp, it's simply lack of use.
"The good news is that there isn't much difference between a
25-year-old brain and a 75-year-old brain," said Buchsbaum, who used
his positron emission tomography laboratory to scan the brains of more
than 50 normal volunteers who ranged in age from 20 to 87.
The memory loss and mental passivity that we used to believe was
caused by aging has now been proven to be caused by simple lack of
use. The brain is like the muscle in your arm: When you use it, it gets
strong and quick. When you don't, it grows weak and slow.
Research at the UCLA Brain Research Institute shows that the circuitry
of the brain—the dendrites that branch between cells—grows with
mental activity.
"Anything that's intellectually challenging," said Arnold Scheibel, head
of the Institute, "can probably serve as a kind of stimulus for dendritic
growth, which means it adds to the computational reserves in the brain."
page_81
Page 82
Translation: You can make yourself smarter.
"Whoever told you that you cannot increase your intelligence?" asks
Dr. Robert Jarvik, inventor of the artificial heart. "Whoever taught you
not to try? They didn't know. Flex your mind. Develop it. Use it. It will
enrich you and bring you the love of life that thrives on truth and
understanding."
Research shows that mathematicians live longer than people in any
other profession do, and we never used to know why. Now, in further
studies done at UCLA, there has been a direct connection established
between dendrite growth and longevity. Mental activity keeps you alive.
Lose your mental challenges, and life itself fades away.
Don't listen to the voice inside that talks about your age, or your IQ, or
your life history, or anything it can slow you down with. Don't be
seduced. You can start a highly motivated life right now by increasing
the challenges you give your brain.
Progress toward your goals is never going to be a straight line. It will
always be a bumpy line. You'll go up and then come down a little. Two
steps forward and one step back.
There's a good rhythm in that. It is like a dance. There's no rhythm in a
straight line upward.
However, people get discouraged when they slide a step back after two
steps forward. They think they are failing, and that they've lost it. But
they have not. They're simply in step with the natural rhythm of
progress. Once you understand this rhythm, you can work with it
instead of against it. You can plan the step back.
In The Power of Optimism, Alan Loy McGinnis identifies the
characteristics of tough-minded optimists, and one of the most
important is that optimists always plan for renewal. They know in
advance that they are going to run out of energy. "In physics," says McGinnis, "the law of entropy
says that all systems, left unattended, will run down. Unless new energy
is pumped in, the organism will disintegrate."
Pessimists don't want to plan for renewal, because they don't think there
should have to be any. Pessimists are all-or-nothing thinkers. They're
always offended when the world is not perfect. They think taking a step
backward means something negative about the whole project. "If this
were a good marriage, we wouldn't have to rekindle the romance," a
pessimist would say, dismissing the idea of taking a second honeymoon.
But an optimist knows that there will be ups and downs. And an
optimist isn't scared or discouraged by the downs. In fact, an optimist
plans for the downs, and prepares creative ways to deal with them.
You can schedule your own comebacks. You can look ahead on your
calendar and block out time to refresh and renew and recover. Even if
you feel very "up" right now, it's smart to plan for renewal. Schedule
your own comeback while you're on top. Build in big periods of time to
get away—even to get away from what you love.
If you catch yourself thinking that you are too old to do something you
want to do, recognize that you are now listening to the pessimistic voice
inside of you.
It is not the voice of truth.
You can talk back. You can remind the voice of all the people in life
who have started their lives over again at any age they wanted to. John
Housman, the Emmy award-winning actor in The Paper Chase, started
acting professionally when he was in his 70s.
I had a friend named Art Hill, who spent most of his life in advertising.
In his heart, however, he always wanted to be a writer. So in his late
50s, he wrote two books that got published by a small publishing house
in
page_80
Page 81
Michigan. Then, when he was 60 years old, Hill had his first national
release with I Don't Care if I Never Come Back, a book about baseball
published by Simon and Schuster. The book was a popular and critical
success, and his dedication page is something I treasure above any
possession I own:
"To Steve Chandler—who cared about writing, cared about me, and one
day said, 'You should write a book about baseball.' "
Nobody cares how old you are but you. People only care about what
you can do, and you can do anything you want, at any age.
Dr. Monte Buchsbaum of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New
York has been one of many scientists conducting research into the
effects of aging on the brain. He is finding that it isn't aging that causes
a brain to become less sharp, it's simply lack of use.
"The good news is that there isn't much difference between a
25-year-old brain and a 75-year-old brain," said Buchsbaum, who used
his positron emission tomography laboratory to scan the brains of more
than 50 normal volunteers who ranged in age from 20 to 87.
The memory loss and mental passivity that we used to believe was
caused by aging has now been proven to be caused by simple lack of
use. The brain is like the muscle in your arm: When you use it, it gets
strong and quick. When you don't, it grows weak and slow.
Research at the UCLA Brain Research Institute shows that the circuitry
of the brain—the dendrites that branch between cells—grows with
mental activity.
"Anything that's intellectually challenging," said Arnold Scheibel, head
of the Institute, "can probably serve as a kind of stimulus for dendritic
growth, which means it adds to the computational reserves in the brain."
page_81
Page 82
Translation: You can make yourself smarter.
"Whoever told you that you cannot increase your intelligence?" asks
Dr. Robert Jarvik, inventor of the artificial heart. "Whoever taught you
not to try? They didn't know. Flex your mind. Develop it. Use it. It will
enrich you and bring you the love of life that thrives on truth and
understanding."
Research shows that mathematicians live longer than people in any
other profession do, and we never used to know why. Now, in further
studies done at UCLA, there has been a direct connection established
between dendrite growth and longevity. Mental activity keeps you alive.
Lose your mental challenges, and life itself fades away.
Don't listen to the voice inside that talks about your age, or your IQ, or
your life history, or anything it can slow you down with. Don't be
seduced. You can start a highly motivated life right now by increasing
the challenges you give your brain.
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