Last week I watched a woman in her seventies breeze through a cryptic crossword while her twenty-something grandson hovered over the answer key.
She laughed, stretched her hips like a seasoned yogi, and then debated city policy with the confidence of a lawyer. I caught myself smiling because I have seen this more and more: people in their seventies outthinking, outfocusing, and out-adapting those of us decades younger.
If you are noticing the same in yourself, there is a good chance your mind is in fighting form.
Below are nine signs you are not just doing okay. You are mentally sharper than many people half your age, and you have earned it.
1. You solve real-life problems faster than you solve app glitches
You may not care about the latest interface change, yet when the plumber no-shows or the flight gets canceled, your brain clicks into practical mode.
That is not luck; it is pattern recognition built from decades of reps. What younger folks call “adulting” is your cognitive home turf. You scope constraints, map options, and act without spiraling.
A useful habit: keep a tiny “decision log.” Create two columns: what you chose, and why. Reviewing it once a week strengthens your internal playbook and makes future decisions more efficient.
2. Your vocabulary is rich, and you use it
Word-finding might slow on some days, but your verbal precision and contextual range often outperform younger adults. This shows up when you explain complicated topics in plain language or when you spot the exact word that softens a tense conversation.
This is crystallized intelligence at work, the storehouse that tends to grow with age and experience.
Try this twist: read one long-form article outside your usual lane each week, then explain it in two sentences. Precision nurtures clarity.
3. You draw on memory like a well-organized archive
People half your age can Google anything, but you remember who to call, what worked in 1998, and why that approach failed in 2011. You also know which memories to trust and which to question. That meta-memory, the skill of knowing your mind, is a quiet superpower.
One gentle upgrade: when you retrieve a memory, ask, “What might I be forgetting?” The question reduces bias and keeps your archive honest.
4. Your attention is selective in the best way
If you can sit through a long conversation without checking your phone, or hold a line of thought while others ping-pong between tabs, take note. Selective attention improves with perspective. You do not waste cognitive energy on every notification; you invest it where it matters.
Micro-practice: set three focus windows a day with no news and no texts. You train your brain to stay with what you value.
5. You are emotionally even-keeled when others get reactive
Sharp does not always mean fast; it often means steady. You tolerate ambiguity, hold competing truths, and make room for feelings without letting them run the show.
As an expert at the American Psychological Association notes, memory loss is not inevitable, and the same is true for emotional reactivity. Perspective helps the prefrontal cortex do its job.
This is echoed by research on SuperAgers, which shows that some older adults retain youthful memory and attention profiles well into their eighties and beyond.
A reflection to try: when you feel flooded, ask, “What is the smallest helpful move right now?” That question trims the drama and preserves mental bandwidth.
6. You keep learning on purpose
You take a watercolor class, learn basic Italian, or finally master sourdough. Neuroplasticity does not retire. As Harvard Health notes, your brain has the ability to learn and grow as you age, a process called brain plasticity, but for it to do so you need to train it on a regular basis. You do not need to cram. You need deliberate, repeated practice.
Here is the only bullet list you will see in this article: three learning cues I use when a skill is new.
- Narrow the scope, for example one chord, one phrase, one brushstroke
- Raise the reps with short, frequent sessions
- Celebrate process, not pace
Small, consistent sessions beat heroic sprints.
7. You sense your body’s signals and act on them
Sharp minds live in tuned-in bodies. You notice your energy dip after certain foods, calm your nervous system with a walk, or step away before a conversation turns unproductive.
In my own life, a minimalist approach to mornings, no doomscrolling, a short yoga flow, ten minutes of breathwork, keeps my mind clean and responsive. The point is not perfection. It is listening.
This is where I will bring in a book I have mentioned before. In Rudá Iandê’s book, Laughing in the Face of Chaos: A Politically Incorrect Shamanic Guide for Modern Life, he writes, “When we stop resisting ourselves, we become whole. And in that wholeness, we discover a reservoir of strength, creativity, and resilience we never knew we had.”
That insight nudged me to treat fatigue and frustration as messages rather than enemies, and it has kept my mind sharper on the days that would otherwise spiral.
8. You connect across generations with ease
You can swap recipes with the neighbor’s teenager, mentor your new boss, and learn from your grandchild’s favorite YouTuber without rolling your eyes.
That flexibility is not just nice; it is cognitive agility. You update your models in real time because your identity is not tied to being right. Curiosity beats defensiveness.
If you want a quick check-in, ask yourself each week, “Who did I learn from that surprised me?” If the answer is often “someone younger,” you are doing it right.
9. You pair discipline with play
You keep a calendar, and you also make room for serendipity. People half your age may be great at optimization, yet struggle to switch gears or play without a productivity angle. You know how to toggle. You have learned that creativity needs structure and oxygen.
A practice I love: schedule a weekly unproductive hour. No goals. No tracking. Let the mind wander. The paradox is real, because permission to play often leads to your sharpest ideas.
Final thoughts
We are almost done, but this piece cannot be overlooked. Staying sharp in your seventies is not a fluke, and it is not only genetics. It is a daily relationship with your mind, how you focus, what you practice, and what you allow.
The science backs you up. Neuroplasticity remains available when you use it, and some older adults maintain youthful memory profiles for decades.
The category of SuperAgers exists to remind us that decline is not the only story.
As Harvard Health puts it, you can build up your reserve through challenging, sustained learning and movement.
Before we finish, here is a small invitation. If this stage of life is asking you to question old stories and live with more ease, Rudá Iandê’s book, Laughing in the Face of Chaos, offers a raw and surprisingly practical nudge.
His insights encouraged me to simplify my mornings, listen more closely to my body, and stop fighting myself when the day goes sideways. If you are ready to sharpen your mind by softening your resistance, you might find it useful too.
One last question to carry into the week: where will you give your brain something meaningful to chew on today?
Just launched: Laughing in the Face of Chaos by Rudá Iandê
Exhausted from trying to hold it all together?
You show up. You smile. You say the right things. But under the surface, something’s tightening. Maybe you don’t want to “stay positive” anymore. Maybe you’re done pretending everything’s fine.
This book is your permission slip to stop performing. To understand chaos at its root and all of your emotional layers.
In Laughing in the Face of Chaos, Brazilian shaman Rudá Iandê brings over 30 years of deep, one-on-one work helping people untangle from the roles they’ve been stuck in—so they can return to something real. He exposes the quiet pressure to be good, be successful, be spiritual—and shows how freedom often lives on the other side of that pressure.
This isn’t a book about becoming your best self. It’s about becoming your real self.
