Hi, and welcome to issue #77 of The Power Up - your midweek boost to see you through to the weekend.

I turned 44 last Saturday. And although in many ways I still feel as youthful as when I was 21, I’ll readily admit that this was the first time that an age number has really bothered me.

Although I like to believe cliches like ‘age is just a number’, I’m starting to realise that there are certain things in my life I will never do now. For instance, I’ll clearly never be a professional athlete, and 44 feels too old to start over in a new career (most careers at least). So I feel a large reduction in the number of possibilities open to me. Limitations I’d never really considered before.

But then I realised that focusing on what I can’t do isn’t a particularly helpful way of thinking. On the whole, my life is good. I have my health, I have friends, and I have a great deal of knowledge and experience that present me with possibilities in the years ahead that aren’t open to everybody.

So that’s how I’m choosing to enter my 45th year - with my eyes open to opportunities, looking for ways to make the very most of the gifts and accumulated experience I do have.

On the subject of which, I’m very open, so if you know me, and have any ideas or suggestions about ways we could collaborate together, then please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

On to this week’s edition… My ageing bag of bones was also encouraged by the first article ‘13 peaks we reach at 40 or later’ that outlines all of the many things we actually get better at as we age!

And there’s lots more besides, covering emotional fitness, mental fitness, digital amnesia, and how to draw ideas to name a few.

This Week

• 13 peaks we reach at 40 or later

• The world’s emotional status is actually pretty good

• Is your smartphone ruining your memory?

• The 8 stages of life that make or break you

• The importance of developing and maintaining your social fitness

• How to draw ideas

• The 7 traits of emotional fitness in leadership

• This week's bonus content

As ever, I hope you enjoy this week’s The Power Up.
But please do let me know if you have any feedback, or things you’d like to see more, or less of.

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Never past your prime: 13 peaks we reach at 40 or later – from sex to running to self-esteem

Given my above-mentioned birthday news, it’s probably no surprise that this article stood out to me this week.

“Ageing doesn’t have to mean slowing down. In fact, you’re more likely to win an ultramarathon in midlife, not to mention get happier, wiser and more body confident,” it promises.

Read on to find out more things that we actually get better at as we enter our 40s, 50s, 60s and beyond.

The Power Up Recommends…

Every Thursday health entrepreneur Derek Flanzraich researches, curates and shares 5 health-related things he either likes or doesn’t like that week, to help you live more healthyish, and spend less time scrolling.

Give 5HT a subscribe to benefit from Derek’s research and expert opinion.

The world’s emotional status is actually pretty good, according to a new global report

Perhaps you’ve felt that the world is accelerating into chaos; heard experts warn that AI will lead to human extinction; or thought that even if it doesn’t, our continued failure to adequately deal with climate change will get the job done anyway.

Yet the topline results from a new Gallup report look pretty good. Positive emotions reached a score of 71 out of 100 worldwide, the highest since the pandemic began. And negative emotions dropped for the first time since 2014. Among all age groups, young people were, by far, the best off. They experienced more positive emotions than anyone else and fewer negative ones.

Read more…

Is your smartphone ruining your memory? A special report on the rise of ‘digital amnesia’

‘I can’t remember anything’ is a common complaint these days. But is it because we rely so heavily on our smartphones? And do the endless alerts and distractions stop us forming new memories?

While smartphones can open up whole new vistas of knowledge, they can also drag us away from the present moment, like a beautiful day. When we’re not attending to an experience, we are less likely to recall it properly, and fewer recalled experiences could even limit our capacity to have new ideas and be creative.

Read more…

The 8 stages of life that make or break you

Erik Erikson, the psychoanalyst who coined the term, “identity crisis,” found that humans typically go through eight stages of life.

As we go through each stage, we experience certain challenges and setbacks. If we resolve these challenges in a positive manner, we grow, but if we don’t, we stagnate.

From Trust Vs Mistrust, Autonomy Vs Shame & Doubt, to Intimacy Vs Isolation - read on to learn more about the 8 stages.

Read more…

The importance of developing and maintaining our social fitness

We intuitively understand what it means to be physically fit: Our cardiovascular system is healthy, our weight is normal, our muscles are toned. We’re generally sufficiently fit to perform certain athletic activities, like running a certain distance or lifting a certain amount of weight.

Likewise, when we’re socially fit, our relationships are in good shape. We have a sufficient number of ties and a sufficient amount of contact with them. Our relationships are marked more by intimacy and warmth than stress and strain.

This article outlines the importance of social fitness to our overall wellbeing, it shows how we can assess the level of our social fitness, and how cultivating physical and social fitness constitutes both a self-interested exercise and an act of service.

Read more…

This writer gave himself a month to make one new friend. How hard could that be?

Becoming and staying ‘socially fit’ can be easier said than done, especially the more we become entrenched in careers and the friendship groups we once had splinter off into relationships, parenthood, or move away.

Find out what this New Yorker learned when they embarked on a month-long quest to make new friends in our modern world.

Read more…

How to draw ideas

Great ideas are hard to find. Drawing can make it a lot easier. And fun.

Find out the four different roles that drawing can play in the creative and innovation process.

Read more…

The Power Up Recommends…

If you like The Power Up, I’m sure you’ll love my other weekly newsletter, Innovation in Sport, in which I bring you the very latest cutting edge developments shaping the sports we’ll be watching, competing in and engaging with in the future.

The 7 traits of emotional fitness in leadership

Clinical psychologist Dr. Emily Anhalt founded the world’s first ‘gym for the mind’.

In this wide-ranging interview, Dr. Anhalt talks about the concept of emotional fitness, the stigma around mental health, how to build resilience and improve communication, the difference between online and face-to-face mental health support, the power of language, and the unique responsibility leaders have when it comes to taking care of their mental health.

Read more…

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See you next time,

Adam