Good morning,

How is your weekend going so far? We’ve had lots of rain and the first signs of muggy summer weather here in Atlanta.

Here’s what I have for you today:

• One big thing. How age stereotypes and mindsets shape your midlife choices, health, and identity—often without you realizing it. 🧠

• You have to check this out. The health impacts of having a purpose; using AI for career pivots. ↪️

• Tools and tech. A short history of AI otters. 🦦

Are you ready to jump in? 🦘

1️⃣ ONE BIG THING

Midlife growth mindset.

Maybe you’ve said it out loud, or maybe just in your head.

“I’m probably too old for that.”

Too old to start over. Too old to launch something new. Too old to get good at something you’ve never tried. Too old to fail. Too old to look stupid.

I know I have, which made me wonder where this perspective originates.

In the early 2000s, Yale University professor Becca R. Levy wondered the same thing.

What she discovered and documented is both intuitive and surprising.

Her research found that people begin absorbing societal age stereotypes at an early age. Over time, these stereotypes slip into the unconscious and become part of your sense of yourself.

Then, most critically, they begin to shape your behavior, which shapes your cognitive functions and your physical health.

Levy called this Stereotype Embodiment Theory. In short, your culture teaches you what it means to be older during your childhood years. When you age, you become (embody) the stereotype.

Her research documented that people who believed older people tend to lose cognitive capabilities performed worse on memory tasks than those with more positive stereotypes. She also documented that individuals with negative self-perceptions of aging exhibited greater cardiovascular stress responses and were less likely to engage in health-promoting behaviors, such as exercise or strength training.

What she found was essentially a self-reinforcing cycle.

This might sound something like: Thinking you're too old to start strength training (lifting weights is for young people), so you don’t strength train, which means your strength declines as you age, which fulfills the stereotype that older people are frail.

Self-reinforcing mindsets.

If you are familiar with Stanford professor Carol Dweck’s now-famous work on mindsets, then this type of self-reinforcing cycle will sound familiar.

Let’s first look at the term mindset. Dr. Alia Crum (another Stanford psychologist) defines a mindset as "a mental frame or lens that selectively organizes and encodes information.”

It is a way of seeing the world that helps you quickly make sense of things. Most of the time, mindsets operate subconsciously, like a pair of glasses coloring how you see everything.

When Dweck published her seminal book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, in 2006, it was a sensation. In it, she introduced her research on the impacts of having a growth mindset versus a fixed mindset.

A growth mindset is a belief your abilities (such as intelligence, creativity, or athleticism) can improve over time through effort, learning, and persistence. People with a growth mindset view setbacks as opportunities for learning and challenges as opportunities to improve. They see effort as the pathway to mastery. The success of others is inspiring.

A fixed mindset is the belief that your abilities are largely set in stone. You either have it or you don't. You see failures as evidence you're just not good at something. You avoid challenges, as they are likely to lead to failure. You see effort as a waste of time. The success of others is a threat.

A mindset continuum.

Those descriptions paint a picture of polar opposites, but most people live somewhere on a continuum between the two mindsets. You may exhibit characteristics of one mindset in some areas of your life but not in others.

For example, I was lucky to learn a growth mindset from my parents. Still, I struggle with a fixed mindset in certain domains, such as learning languages. Getting meta here, you can even have a growth mindset about improving your mindset.

James Anderson created the “mindset continuum” to more accurately describe how mindsets work in different areas of life.

I find his work to be the most helpful of all the mindset guidance out there. It’s worth reviewing his mindset continuum graphic (it’s too detailed to reproduce here).

“In the real world, there aren’t two types of people. We don’t live in a world where some students have a Fixed Mindset, and others have a Growth Mindset,” he notes.

Much of Dweck's research focused on children—the ways they acquire mindsets from their parents and the significant performance benefits of a growth mindset. Children who learn to cultivate a growth mindset outperform their peers with a fixed mindset in nearly every way.

Here are a few links to Dweck’s research (including the impact of different forms of praise) and her TED talk (nearly 17 million views) if you want to read more:

• Implicit Theories of Intelligence Predict Achievement Across an Adolescent Transition: A Longitudinal Study and an Intervention (2007).

• Praise for intelligence can undermine children's motivation and performance (1998).

• TED Talk: The power of believing that you can improve (2014 video, 11:23 min).

Identity and performance.

Dr. Andrew Huberman covered research from Dweck and others in his July 17, 2023 podcast, How to Enhance Performance & Learning by Applying a Growth Mindset (Episode 133).

What jumped out to me was his insight that a growth mindset means decoupling identity from performance.

Children who do well in school or sports (performance) are told they are smart or talented (identity). Dweck’s research documents how debilitating this becomes over time. If you're hyper-smart, you shouldn't need to study hard. If you are naturally athletic, you shouldn’t need to practice. You either have it or you don’t.

This identity-based worldview (fixed) is different from an effort-based worldview (growth), where you have agency over your future.

The pop-finance book Rich Dad Poor Dad from 2000 echoes this dichotomy. The author's father was prone to saying, "I can't afford that," but his friend's father asked instead, "How can I afford that?”

You can see the flywheel effect at work here.

Mindsets become self-fulfilling prophecies. If you believe you are not good at public speaking (identity), you avoid public speaking. You never gain the skills and confidence that only come from doing the reps. Then, alas, your public speaking skills are poor (performance).

A growth mindset is absolutely not about manifesting success (the idea that simply visualizing success can attract it into reality). It is about effort, practice, persistence, and grit. It is active, not passive. It gives you agency.

The aging flywheel.

I’ve been thinking about Dweck’s mindset research since I first bought her book on September 28, 2010 (thank you Amazon order history, lol).

I hadn’t considered how directly applicable it is to aging until recently.

Keep your ears open for how often you hear people our age say, "I'm too old for that now.”

When it comes to dressing like you’re 22, this logic is probably helpful.

But if you’re not careful, this mindset will become the worst kind of self-fulfilling prophecy.

I’m too old to run anymore and can too easily become I’m too old for exercise. Not exercising crushes your fitness and strength. Over time, you really are too old for activity; you are too frail.

I'm too old to start a new professional endeavor can too easily become I’m too old to try new things.

Not challenging yourself invites boredom and erodes your sense of purpose. Lacking a sense of purpose leads to worsening cognitive and physical outcomes (see the research link in the “short reads” section below for more).

This is not hypothetical.

In the 2022 paper "Growth Mindset Predicts Cognitive Gains in an Older Adult Multi-Skill Learning Intervention" (link to the PDF), researchers demonstrated that older adults could learn growth mindset practices and that those with this mindset performed better on cognitive tests.

The next time you think, "I'm probably too old for that,” pause for a moment.

Maybe this observation is actually spot on.

For example, I am 100% too old to hit up a three-day music festival. But for me, this is about preference, not ability.

If your thought sounds like, “I wish I could, but I’m probably too old," it's worth considering whether this is a fixed mindset trap.

Is your thought tied to a stereotype about aging you absorbed as a kid?

Did you have a more growth-oriented, challenge-hungry mindset earlier in your life?

The power of yet.

Dweck often talks about the power of adding "yet" to the end of your thoughts.

I’m not able to run a marathon… yet.

I can’t afford that… yet.

I don’t know anything about starting my own business… yet.

I don't have a Ph.D... yet.

I have never grown my own vegetables… yet.

What would be on your list?

Thanks for reading again this week.

See you next Sunday,

Kevin