According to a recent Pew Research Center study, the number of working Americans over 55 years old will grow quickly over the next decade. Most of the increase is thanks to people between the ages of 65 and 74 years old (who are between 57 and 66 today). In 2002, these workers made up just 20.4% of the workforce, but 10 years from now they will account for 31.9%.

So you’ll not only be competing against younger people for jobs and promotions, but you’ll be up against peers, who in the past would have retired from the workforce.

Question: What can you do to increase your value to an organization and thereby differentiate yourself from young whippersnappers and old coots, as well?

Answer: Think like a honey bee. (Believe it or not, bees have the same kind of brain cells as humans.) Please click on the video, below.

No, I’m not advocating that you should inject yourself with bee venom to reverse brain aging, but I am suggesting that you might improve your cognitive and creative abilities by tinkering with how you interact with your surroundings. Developing more “youthful thinking” might be as easy as “being unafraid to try new things and understanding that the best way to learn is to do, fail, fix and learn from that.”*

Finally, if you are like me and work from home (in the period 2005-2011 U.S. teleworking grew 73% – today one in four U.S. workers works from home, at least some of the time) working all alone creates stress. While developing strong social connections with fellow workers may be difficult, it could be another key factor in helping your brain to stay younger.

*Taken from the book Spark for the Fire written by Ian Warton