How Understanding These Eight Dimensions of Intelligence Can Help Retirees Retain Cognitive Abilities
The following is adapted from Retiring?
For the years leading up to retirement, most of us have little trouble staying mentally sharp. In the corporate world, it’s just about impossible to not function at a high cognitive level because we’re bombarded with stress, deadlines, and meetings upon meetings.
As we enter retirement, however, it can be easy to lose some of the “heat off your fastball,” as they say. No longer are you powering through to conquer daily stressors, meet deadlines, and physically run from one conference room to the next. With the understanding that you’ve entered this next chapter in your life to get rid of those things, you still want to be able to retain the cognitive ability that allowed you to get through them for all those years.
A big step to doing that is by identifying the aspects of your intelligence that are strengths. We all have them; we all have our weaker forms as well. Understanding which types of intelligence are your strong points and which need improvement can be valuable information for any retiree. By understanding this, you’ll be equipped to pick activities that keep your brain fit during retirement.
“Understanding which types of intelligence are your strong points and which need improvement can be valuable information for any retiree. By understanding this, you’ll be equipped to pick activities that keep your brain fit during retirement.”
Eight Types of Intelligence
In the 1980s, a Harvard psychologist named Howard Gardner identified eight types of human intelligence. The following is a cursory summary of what he discovered.
Linguistic or “word smart”—having particular sensitivity to words’ meanings, the order among words, and their sounds, rhythms, inflections, and meter.
Logical-mathematical or “numbers/reasoning smart”—the ability to conceptualize the logical relations among actions or symbols (e.g., mathematicians and scientists).
Spatial or “visualization smart”—the ability to conceptualize and manipulate large-scale spatial arrays (e.g., airplane pilots and sailors, among others) or more local forms of space (e.g., architects and chess players).
Bodily-kinesthetic or “body smart”—the ability to use one’s whole body or parts of the body (such as the hands or the mouth) to solve problems or create products (e.g., dancers and athletes).
Musical or “music smart”—sensitivity to rhythm, pitch, meter, tone, melody, and timbre, as well as the ability to sing, play musical instruments, and compose music (e.g., conductors).
Interpersonal or “people smart”—the ability to interact well with others; sensitivity to others’ moods, feelings, temperaments, and motivations.
Intrapersonal or “self-smart”—sensitivity to one’s own feelings, goals, and anxieties, along with the capacity to plan and act in light of one’s traits. Intrapersonal intelligence isn’t particular to specific careers. Having intrapersonal skills helps people make consequential decisions for themselves.
Naturalist or “nature smart”—the ability to make consequential distinctions in the world of nature, such as between one plant and another or one cloud formation and another (e.g., taxonomists).
Since Gardner’s work, it’s become generally accepted that every individual has a varying mix of some or all of these forms of intelligence. For example, some people are musically gifted; others are mathematically superior; still, others have amazing interpersonal skills, and so on.
Your Own Mix of Intelligence
So, what types of intelligence stick out for you? Think about how, over the years, you’ve developed and exercised your own unique mix of intelligence. Consider which elements you’ve found most useful and important during your career.
As you zero in on your principle strengths, you’ll also identify other types of intelligence you have and which you feel you could further develop.
If linguistics have always been a strength, there’s no time like retirement to write that great American novel. If your career centered around using your people skills, maybe it’s a good time to get involved with the local schools, neighborhood committees, or volunteer work.
If you’ve always felt “at one” with nature, retirement offers plenty of time for long walks on trails or even just planting a garden in the backyard. If you want to take it to a new level, try planting a garden for the whole community.
Using Your Cognitive Strengths in Retirement
There are plenty of other examples that exist for each type of intelligence. Now it’s time to discover which ones you want to leverage in your retirement activities.
It doesn’t matter at all if your strong points are in spatial, musical, mathematical, or any of the other eight areas of intelligence identified by Gardner. The key is to use them effectively.
Retirement is the opportunity you’ve been waiting for. Now is the time to leverage your cognitive strengths to stop living the intense struggles of a daily working life, and start doing the things you’ve always wanted to do. Who knows, if math is your thing, maybe you can be the first to solve one of the six remaining unsolved math problems. Opportunity awaits!
For more advice on retaining cognitive abilities in retirement, you can find Retiring? on Amazon.
Ted Kaufman is the former U.S. Senator from Delaware succeeding Senator Joseph Biden. Ted was Biden’s Chief of Staff for nineteen years and led his presidential transition planning in 2020. He taught at Duke Law School for twenty-six years. At 81, he and his wife, Lynne, celebrate their 61st anniversary this year. Bruce Hiland’s career included McKinsey, more than four years as Chief Administrative Officer at Time Inc., twenty years of independent consulting, and four startups. Now 80, he and Ginny, married fifty-seven years, are enjoying their family, dealing with aging, and harvesting the fruits of their labor.