An even temperament is one of the keys of success at any age. It is especially so as we grow older, when something remarkable occurs to our brain physiology. The amygdala (the site of "flight or fight" responses to threats) shrinks and becomes better aligned with our prefrontal cortex, the site of our executive functions.
The result is that we're not just even-tempered or even-handed, but something even more fundamental -- what Laura Carstensen, a prominent gerontologist and the director of Stanford’s Center on Longevity, calls “even-mindedness.”
It means that we can be "angry with someone we love without losing sight of our connection to that person,” writes the psychologist Todd Finnemore. “We can be outraged by an idea without losing hope. And, we tend not to rush to an easy truth."
In other words, we have the "ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function" -- F. Scott Fitzgerald’s oft-sited definition of intelligence.
The sociologist Sarah Lawrence-Lightfoot offers other examples of this special kind of intelligence. She describes life's "third chapter" as developing the skill set of "embracing contradictions" -- chief among them "liberation and loss" and "retreat and engagement."
All this equips us with the qualities that enable professional changemakers to embrace such challenging contradictions of their own. Like them, we have the potential to:
Furthermore, we've built up our own resilience through overcoming repeated setbacks. We can "think without thinking" and we possess a special kind of creativity. In brief, we seem to have developed within us a capacity for what the the UC San Diego expert on aging, Dilip Jeste calls “decisiveness amidst ambiguity.”
But wait! There's more! We've got a little wisdom and the special kind of values that can orient, energize and guide us.
*Roger Martin and Sally Osberg, Getting Beyond Better: How Social Entrepreneurship Works,
The result is that we're not just even-tempered or even-handed, but something even more fundamental -- what Laura Carstensen, a prominent gerontologist and the director of Stanford’s Center on Longevity, calls “even-mindedness.”
It means that we can be "angry with someone we love without losing sight of our connection to that person,” writes the psychologist Todd Finnemore. “We can be outraged by an idea without losing hope. And, we tend not to rush to an easy truth."
In other words, we have the "ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function" -- F. Scott Fitzgerald’s oft-sited definition of intelligence.
The sociologist Sarah Lawrence-Lightfoot offers other examples of this special kind of intelligence. She describes life's "third chapter" as developing the skill set of "embracing contradictions" -- chief among them "liberation and loss" and "retreat and engagement."
All this equips us with the qualities that enable professional changemakers to embrace such challenging contradictions of their own. Like them, we have the potential to:
- simultaneously abhor unproductive and immoral systems yet appreciate the forces that govern them;
- draw upon a deep level expertise in their field yet still function as apprentices;
- carry out short-term experiments yet hold fast to long-term goals.*
Furthermore, we've built up our own resilience through overcoming repeated setbacks. We can "think without thinking" and we possess a special kind of creativity. In brief, we seem to have developed within us a capacity for what the the UC San Diego expert on aging, Dilip Jeste calls “decisiveness amidst ambiguity.”
But wait! There's more! We've got a little wisdom and the special kind of values that can orient, energize and guide us.
*Roger Martin and Sally Osberg, Getting Beyond Better: How Social Entrepreneurship Works,