HEALTH THE BEST GAME PLAN FOR YOUR BRAIN AS YOU AGE

SIXTY-TWO-YEAR-OLD founder Marie Jerusalem has never felt more able to adapt to the changing demands of the corporate world. "My body's not as agile as it used to be, but mentally I'm stronger today than I've probably ever been in my entire career," she tells Fortune.

- ALEXA MIKHAIL

At 57, Jerusalem was let go from her chief people officer role in private equity. But she wasn't financially, or emotionally, ready to retire. After working for a few years as a business consultant in HR, she pivoted to launch Rocket50, a membership community and job search platform that assists older workers. To get her business off the ground, she had to quickly acquire a host of new skills-from integrating AI to creating marketing and social media strategies.

Jerusalem rejects the notion that older people don't want to learn new ways of doing things, and credits the demands of launching a business-gaining new skills and engaging with others-for boosting her confidence and mental resilience.

People often assume the mind does not work optimally with age. While there are some normal age-related declines in thinking speed and attention, people's decisionmaking and abstract reasoning skills may actually improve with age, according to research from the National Institute on Aging and the Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC).

It's good news, as employees age 55 and older are expected to constitute more than a quarter of the workforce over the next decade, and Americans are increasingly working past retirement age either because they want to stay engaged or because finances and caregiving duties make it impossible not to. Regardless of why they're working, they all have one thing in common: They want to stay mentally sharp. Fortunately, the brain is adaptable, and experts say some daily habits can help people maintain cognitive resilience well into older age.

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