Written by Thu Tran, MD,FACOG
October 21, 2024
Americans are known for being hard working. We value highly productive employees and are proud to work into our 70s or 80s. My father-in-law, an infectious disease specialist, virologist and professor of pediatrics, did not officially retire from Duke Medical School until he turned 90 years old. He was not the only person I know who worked that long. As a medical student, I had professors who still operated on major surgical cases in their late 70s into 80s. One was considered a giant in medicine and, and nobody at that institution dared to ask the giant if it was time for him to retire.
Arthur Brooks, author of From Strength to Strength, is a social scientist who studies the science of happiness. As a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School in Public Leadership and in Management Practice at Harvard Business School, Dr. Brooks has met many important and highly successful people whose identity is defined by their work. He studied their satisfaction and happiness after transitioning into retirement and came up with strategies to help us settle into our “second phase of life,” a phase nobody can escape but many ignore until it is upon them. Those who have the wisdom to prepare for this phase, where “crystallized” intelligence becomes the guide through obstacles, are much happier and less anxious.
Dr. Brooks emphasized often in his book that everyone has a peak and decline in his career. This decline comes with age and actually comes quite early in many professions. Most inventors, for example, create their most innovative work in their 30s. Mathematicians and historians, however, have their career peaks much later because they are better able to see the big picture, using wisdom and skills that often are not fully developed until they have many years of experience.
Brooks cited the work of Raymond Cattle, a British psychologist in the 1960s who defined two types of intelligence. Fluid intelligence is the raw intelligence in younger people that helps them react to and solve an abstract problem more quickly. Crystallized intelligence, on the other hand, is developed later in life, in our 40s, 50s or 60s using one’s experience and wisdom to solve problems. This second phase’s intelligence makes us better mentors to the younger generations, although our mind and body have declined from their optimum states.
Dr. Brooks goes further, using the work of the first century philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero to introduce three strategies to a meaningful second stage of life, those of service, wisdom and counsel. Cicero believed we can use the experience and knowledge accumulated from our younger years to help younger people avoid making mistakes. We’re still “useful” in this second phase using our crystallized intelligence, but we need to learn to acknowledge and accept this curve which often arrives in our 40s and 50s.
We live in a society where success is based on materialistic or physical criteria. Society’s “influencers” often are wealthy, beautiful, and powerful. Wealth and power bring addiction to more success. We subject ourselves to this “ objectification” and often falsely equate success with happiness. We also become so dependent on others’ opinions that we’re even more afraid to fail than before we had success.
Dr. Brooks, a devout Catholic, uses the teaching of Buddhism to show us how to detach from these superficial and addictive criteria for success. He wisely reminds us how success that’s based on physical criteria is positional, and positional goods do not bring happiness. We need to free ourself from perfectionism, pride, workaholism, social comparison and fear of failure in order to lighten our load to a happier destination.
To help us transition smoothly into our “second curve,” Dr. Brook advises us to cultivate our relationships with our families and friends. Close friendships cannot be replaced by family/spousal relationships and they require hard work. The benefits of social connection have been studied and proven extensively. Meaningful personal relationships are among the most important pillars in the pursuit of happiness. He advises us to allocate our time for these, and to pay attention to the needs of our loved ones, not just to our own. Studies have found that those who invest in “intrinsic goals,” which are lasting relationships, are emotionally and physically more healthy than those who pursue external rewards for happiness.
To begin working toward our second curve, Dr. Brook advises his readers to work on our spiritual side which requires self reflection and attention to smaller but more beautiful things that one has missed while pursuing more material goals.
In the last chapter, Dr. Brooks strategizes how we can jump successfully into our second curve or “liminality,” the transition time in our career paths, relationships or organizational roles. It does not have to be viewed as a crisis, but as the courage to reinvent ourselves to do what we love. Do what interests you most, Dr. Brooks advises, as it’s the most reliable indication that you will find joy in it. Finding joy in the act of gardening for example, should be our goal, even if our plants end up not flowering. In our earlier years of fluid intelligence, the rewards like prestige or a good paycheck, not the work itself, usually is our career goal. In this new phase, our career might no longer be on the traditional linear path. There should be new creativity that might or might not have anything to do with our job in the first curve.
Lastly, Dr. Brooks describes the Tibetan Buddhist concept called “bardo,” to encourage us to make the necessary jump. It is like standing at the edge of the cliff, knowing we will be free but still having fear. Make the jump, and we will be reborn, he wisely encourages us.
Most of my good friends are in their 40s or older. Like me, they are people who Dr. Brooks suspects to be his typical readers, highly educated professionals whose life is defined by their careers. One of them, a successful physician and professor who has held many prestigious academic positions, recommended this book to me. I am grateful to read this “guide to the second curve of life.“ Everything has to end; everyone has to age and decline. It’s helpful to understand, acknowledge and accept our decline ahead of time, followed by a process of inner reflection, cultivation and preparation for the next phase. Doing all this homework will help us land more softly and happily into our second curve and, eventually, our “Sannyasa,” the last spiritual stage In Hindu, the stage of enlightenment.