How to combat cognitive decline and diminishing worldview?

7 comments

1. I mean. I guess it all comes down to how realistic your expectations are.

   * If someone confided in me that they expected to be some million dollar globe-trotting playboy,. I’d probably genuinely tell them my opinion that’s not very realistic.

   * If someone grew up in a small town in Nebraska,. and said they want to move to a bigger city like San Fran or NYC or even another country like London or Berlin,.. I think that’s more manageable and achievable.

   Concerning your fears about getting older and less capable,.. I mean,.. yeah ? (I say that as someone who’s 51). That’s just part of growing older and being bogged down with adult-responsibilities.

   It just depends on how you arrange your life. If you decide to buy a house, you’re kind of stuck with the responsibility of upkeep of that house (unless you rent it out or turn it into a a AirBNB. If you decide to have a significant other or children (or pets).. those things have responsibilities that might limit other areas of your life. If you decide to commit yourself to training up to run a marathon,. that might require cutting back hours at work (which might reduce your paycheck).

   There’s only so much time and resources in a day. None of us are super human. You need time to sleep and eat and take a shower and unwind. Human bodies have limitations. (and there’s nothing wrong with that)

   I know for me when I got into my 20’s, I would realize my life didn’t quite look like my teen-self expected it would. When I got into my 30’s,.. my life didn’t look like my 20-something self thought it would. When I got into my 40’s my life didn’t look like my 30-something self thought it would. I’m not necessarily disappointed with that. Life unfolds like life unfolds. Sometimes shit happens and you just have to try to make the best of what happens. (pandemics, job-loss, relationship failures, pet deaths, car-thefts, whatever).

   I may not have accomplished all the things my younger self dreamed about,.. but I am older and wiser and have a lot of adventurous scars now that I can tell stories about. I’m a certified “survivor” (pandemic had me in ICU on a ventilator for 16 days,.. also had some skin-cancer removed from the side of my nose). So ,. I guess I haven’t travelled internationally yet (even though I do now have my first Passport). But I’m only 51, .. so there’s still time. Lots of people got started later in life.

2. you got a lot going on in this post. first thing i’d advise you is to edit this into paragraphs for yourself. this will help you organize your own thoughts. and hopefully you won’t write walls of text and expect us to read them again.

   your big problem i see is you’re missing meaning. we get meaning mostly from our own actions, and other people. so do something meaningful for someone and see if that doesn’t scratch your itch.

   now, as for the questions in your title, the best two ways to stave off age-related cognitive decline are walking on uneven terrain (preferably in nature), and face-to-face conversations in a group. congrats! you’ve picked an activity that will help with both.

   to avoid a diminishing worldview, realize that your education is not something you can finish. keep learning about people, places, philosophies, etc. talk to folks. ask questions about their lives. read fiction, too. travel. you’ve barely started, but you sound like you’re in a good place to become somebody, if you’ll do the work.

3. Use it or lose it, basically. You can start learning a language today. Like, right now, immediately after reading this comment.

4. Have you tried continuing education on your own?

   You just need to find topics that interest you and you’ll have plenty of novelty. Right now I’m studying the history of economics and American corporate law. I’m also going back over a course on metacognition because I enjoyed it so much the first time.

   Like you, I just need something to fill the void until I die.

5. To answer a couple of questions that jumped out:

   > I always figured their life experiences were richer than mine and they had more to give back to the world.

   If you want to give back to the world, I’m sure there are local orgs that could use the volunteer help.

   > Do I have to accept not having the best job or living situation?

   Figure out your own measure of success, and expect it to change as you grow as a person. My measure of success was much different in my 20s from in my 40s.

   Personally, while a better job would be nice, we’re in a bit of a downturn right now and the work/life balance is really nice at my current place. It’s not worth job-hopping for to gain a few more $ on my paycheque – we’re cutting back instead to free up some budget.

   There are always trade-offs you’ll make – studying for that next certification vs going to a concert or going to the gym vs hiking.

   > I’ve traveled

   Keep doing that, especially if you’re younger and don’t have a family yet.

   > How to combat cognitive decline and diminishing worldview?

   Travel, explore, have new experiences, and meet new people.

6. If all goes well, you are going to live for another 60 years. Your career as an engineer you can easily have for another 40 years if you want. There will be periods in your life where you go years and not a whole lot happens, or doesn’t seem to happen… and then years where a hell of a lot happens. Then there will be years where you don’t see much happening but then you look back a lot happened.

   A lot of this stuff you can do right now. I decided I should learn another language last fall, at age 39. I just do the Duolingo for a good 3 hour-4 hours per week, every week. Enough to maintain Diamond rank. Its not signing up to being a spy or doing some heist, its just sitting on my computer for blocks of 20-30 minutes a few times per day. Day to day, its actually pretty boring and mundane. Week to week it doesn’t feel like there is any progress, month to month I feel like I always learn something, but when I go back and review stuff from months ago, it seems like baby work. Like how did I ever struggle with such a thing, it feels like a baby could do it now! Il bambino parla bene.

   The world is going to keep changing, keeping up and adapting with those changes will give you a moving target.

7. >I’m worried that my vitality will decline with age and my ambition alongside it.

   I’ve traveled and gotten a glimmer of hope from seeing new countries and experiences out there but I still feel something missing.

   I grew up daydreaming of living abroad, learning a new language, applying myself on a global scale.

   OP you are (per your flair) not quite 30 years old. When I was in my mid-30’s I left it all behind, changed careers and lived abroad for a few years, where I met and married my spouse (still married decades later). It isn’t too late to live abroad, it isn’t too late to learn a new language, it isn’t too late to see new things and have new experiences. Heck, wherever it is that you live (let’s presume it’s the US given you mention state colleges) the US is a huge country, with incredible variety.

   You mention ‘some form of grandiosity’, well you are lucky (again presuming you are in the US) to live in the wealthiest and arguably the most powerful country on earth, in what is the most comfortable and technologically advanced society the world has ever known. The poorest amongst us live better than any King could have imagined only 500 years ago.

   It sounds like you do not have what is needed for meaning, and that is concrete goals, something to aim for. I have two ideas on how to solve the problem of this feeling, this restless lack of a sense of meaning: one is a book, Man’s Search for Meaning, by an Auschwitz survivor Viktor Frankl, the other is a Youtube video (3 hours long) from a set of Jordan Pederson clips ([link](https://youtu.be/7ymfgEHOY1s?si=juN1DmefnirYFnKL)). He talks about meaning and purpose in the context of needing something to aim for; and while he uses stories from fables and often the Bible he’s coming at all this from a perspective of a clinical psychologist and is worth looking into.