Anyone ascribe to the Malcolm Gladwell 10,000 hours is needed to become an expert? Even if you don’t agree, one thing is for sure, PRACTICE REALLY DOES MAKE PERFECT. I love this article by Gerald Marzaroti from the New York Times in 2016: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/01/opinion/better-aging-through-practice-practice-practice.html. The net, net (ha pun intended) is finding new things to become good at, not just dilettante behavior but really learn and be skilled at something new. Like Gerald, I took up tennis just shy of my 50th birthday. I put in many, many hours, became decent enough at it to go to ‘Nationals” for the ‘over 50’ league. However there were other side effects that I never expected: my attention and concentration got better, my oxytocin levels rose (and sometimes my chorticords too) and it yielded many new acquaintances not to mention a more fit body. I didn’t realize at the time, learning and keeping track of the scoring helped to improve memory. Tracking the points when others forgot was a plus–it built my brain and and tennis ‘cred.’
One of my clients used to love juggling when he was a teenager. Now he is reading articles from MIT in his 60s about the geometry and physics of juggling. He is about to start practicing again. While Marzaroti states he’s not sure 60 is the new 50, others argue it’s the new 40 as you will see with the commentaries sent to his article–see the cyclist who started in her 50s, the piano-man who started in his 60s!!!
If you are ‘game’ for this challenge, pick something that you will give your ‘all’ to because that’s when it really makes the difference to improve your memory
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