Acceptance of the natural cadence of our abilities allows the shifting of attention to higher spiritual and life priorities.

• Jump: Let go when you have reached your peak accomplishment, perhaps before you are completely ready. You don't necessarily have to qui...

Current achievements provide happiness, but the memory of past accomplishments do not appear to produce long-lasting happiness.

The waning of ability in people of high accomplishment is particularly difficult psychologically. Retired athletes struggle profoundly after ...

It is the idea that if you reach professional heights and are deeply invested in being high up, you can suffer greatly when you inevitably decline.

In many professions, we may reject the inevitability of decline before a very old age. But the data are clear that for most ...

• Fluid intelligence is the ability to reason, analyze, and solve unique problems. It is highest in early adulthood and diminishes in one's 30s and 40s.
• Crystallized intelligence is the ability to use knowledge gained in the past. It relies on ...

There are two kinds of virtues:

• Résumé virtues. These are professional and geared toward worldly success.
• Eulogy virtues. These are ethical and spiritual. They are what you want people to talk about at your funeral. "He was kind and deeply ...

Some people have managed their declines well.

When the musical career of Johann Sebastian Bach declined, instead of becoming depressed or discouraged, he chose to redesign his life, moving from composer to instructor. In his later ye...