4 Ways to Avoid Your Professional Decline

What happens when the abilities that brought you professional success start to decline?
In this episode of Office Hours, I explore how our strengths change with age and how to be happier as they do. Drawing on my book From Strength to Strength (amazon.com/Strength-Finding-Success-Happiness-…), I explain fluid and crystallized intelligence and contrast how Darwin and Bach responded to professional decline.
As always, I leave you with practical steps to help you navigate this transition and find more happiness, meaning, and fulfillment as you age.
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Where to find Arthur Brooks:
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Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro
(10:40) How happiness changes with age
(15:09) Who is happiest after 70
(17:40) The inevitability of age-related decline in our abilities
(21:49) Lessons on aging from the lives of Darwin and Bach
(32:05) Why our abilities decline with age
(39:01) #1. Jump to the new curve
(40:51) #2. Serve other people
(42:15) #3. Develop your life philosophy
(43:40) #4. Connect more deeply with others
(46:28) Q&A: Navigating relationships with adult children
(47:51) Q&A: Finding meaningful ways to spend retirement
(49:01) Q&A: How to handle “deal” friends
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Referenced:
• The Meaning of Your Life: Finding Purpose in an Age of Emptiness: arthurbrooks.com/the-meaning-of-your-life
• Arthur’s newsletter:arthurbrooks.com/newsletter
• The Happiness Scale:learn.arthurbrooks.com/the-happiness-scale
• The Pursuit of Happiness with Arthur Brooks:thefp.com/s/the-pursuit-of-happiness-with-arthur
• From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life: amazon.com/Strength-Finding-Success-Happiness-…
• Your Professional Decline Is Coming (Much) Sooner Than You Think: theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/07/work-…
• Is happiness U-shaped everywhere? Age and subjective well-being in 145 countries: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7480662
• Creative productivity: A predictive and explanatory model of career trajectories and landmarks: psycnet.apa.org/record/1997-02113-002
• Charles Darwin: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin
• Johann Sebastian Bach: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Sebastian_Bach
• ...References continued at: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠arthurbrooks.com/office-hours⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠… (arthurbrooks.com/office-hours)