Consider these two facts:

1) People typically slow down mentally as they age.
They experience short-term memory loss (where are my keys?), process information more slowly, find it harder to concentrate and focus, are more easily confused, become vague, and tend to be less creative and less adventurous.

2) They don't have to!
Countless studies, and simple observation, tell us that our mind, like any other muscle (it's not a muscle but you get my point), needs to be trained to stay in shape. Excluding people with specific medical conditions, we find that people who have remained mentally active as they have aged typically see little or no deterioration in their level of brain function.

The moment we stop using it, we start losing it. The good news is that our brain (like our body) is amazing and can adapt (grow 'muscle') at any age. We can (to an extent) undo some, if not most, of the damage. It's great to be in shape physically but what's the point of having four percent body-fat, Olympian biceps, and veins on our veins, if we have a mind like a Dalmatian?

After years of helping people get in shape physically, here are my tips for developing and maintaining a high-performance mind.

1. Set goals.
The moment we stop setting goals is the moment we start going backwards. Without goals we don't have to think, plan, rationalise, problem solve, or create (as much).

2. Laugh.
It's not illegal to laugh, be silly, or have fun as you age. Although some grumpy old farts will take me to task on this, they're wrong. "Hey Johnnie... pull my finger." (So juvenile.)

3. Play.
"We don't stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing." Two of my favourite people in the world are a (nearly) seventy years young couple who ski, ride mountain bikes, run up and down sand dunes, hike, lift weights, travel, help others, play practical jokes, and hang out with 'silly' young people.

4. Study.
You don't have to go back to college and get your PhD, although you might, but maybe explore short courses, workshops, anything to blow out those cerebral cobwebs and get those rusty cogs turning once again.

Most people stop (consciously) learning when they finish school. Pity. One of my staff (Rona) is fifty-two. She started university for the first time last year. She will graduate with her bachelors degree in Exercise Science when she's fifty-four and has already informed me that she wants to continue studying once she completes her current course. The other day she told me, "it's the best thing I've ever done in my life!" (Condolences to her husband!)