Brian Clark

You can’t avoid being told to move more at every turn. And for good reason, as it’s the key to vastly improving your quality of life, now and as you get older. But sometimes the advice doesn’t hit the way it needs to despite the benefits. And that’s when you might need to look at …

There’s a reason they call us the “sandwich generation.” That’s when people at middle-age care for both their aging parents and their own children to varying degrees. It’s a historically unique situation because on one hand our parents are living longer, while on the other we delayed having our own kids until later in life. …

Recently, a person who hadn’t seen me in a while commented that I had clearly been working out. “What are you training for?” she asked. All I could think to say was, “Life.” It was both a fair question and a legitimate answer. Many people at midlife turn to extreme athletic challenges like marathons and …

By now you know the many benefits of meditation. You get it, and you need a way to actually do it. But just in case you need further motivation… research reveals that meditation keeps your brain young as you get older. High-resolution magnetic resonance imaging shows that large parts of the gray matter in the …

Back when I was a pre-teen, All in the Family was one of the most popular TV shows around. The sitcom was groundbreaking in how it tackled modern social issues in the 70s, but every episode kicked off with Archie and Edith at the piano singing “Those Were the Days” in an ode to “simpler” …

Here at Further, we talk a lot about the benefits of walking. When you consider that walking enhances your creativity and problem-solving abilities, cognitive health and mental well-being, and fitness and longevity, it’s pretty hard to beat. When it comes to fitness, some may think walking is a bit wimpy. They head off to Crossfit …

Ah, you’ve got to love the latest exercise fads. Most range from silly to needlessly complicated. And these “new fitness breakthroughs!” are almost always designed to separate you from your money so you can “finally” succeed. You’d think we’d learn by now. But the fitness-industrial complex knows that people actually seek out the “new thing,” …

Imagine you’re trying to get better at something that matters. You consistently put true effort into your practice. Every time you get a bit better, you intentionally make your task more difficult. At first, you improve easily. Over time gains gets tougher, but you not only continue to make yourself work harder each time you …

Midlife is a transition period. It starts off a bit rough for many people, but that gives way to an opportunity to be who you want to be next. It’s a time when we become comfortable in our own skin, and yet concurrently feel compelled to push ourselves out of our comfort zones. This sets …

It’s hard to find good news about retirement these days. Part of the reason is that our popular conception of how retirement is supposed to be has been obsolete for four decades. Longer lives and extended healthspans make the popular conception of retirement even less obtainable, at least at the young age of 65. But …

It’s a tale of two very different career paths at midlife. On one hand, most people at 50+ are head down on the job and putting away as much as they can into retirement accounts. But what really matters is that they keep their jobs until they decide to retire of their own volition. We …

Last week we talked about how the buzzword “lifelong learning” is becoming the very real need for long life learning as we live extended healthy lives. In short, perpetual learning is the key to success at work, now and into the future. Current thinking divides life into three stages — learn, earn, and retire. Going …