Name: Get Up and Go. Appearance: Lively, bold, adventurous. Age: 54. I could swear the concept is older than that. Apparently not. Are you saying that until 54 years ago there was no such thing as get up and go? No, I’m saying that people over the age of 53 don’t have any. Well I am over 53 and I like to think I have still got plenty of get up and go. You like to think wrong. Your get up and go has got up and gone. What do you mean by “get up and go”, exactly? Your passion, your grit, your drive to try new things and achieve fresh goals. All dried up, sadly. No doubt it is a common enough problem, but surely the age at which it dries up varies widely from person to person? Nope. It’s 54. Who says? A Norwegian study published in New Ideas in Psychology, that has examined the relation between passion, “grit” and a positive mindset across a lifespan. And what did it find? That the correlation between grit and passion were strong between the ages of 17 and 53, but in the 54 to 69 group the correlation was “trivial”. I have no idea what you are talking about. You may well have a high score for grit and a low one for passion, or vice versa. These intertwined qualities are needed for high achievement, but the over-53s don’t seem to possess them as a package. Nonsense. How are they even defining passion? As “a strong desire or enthusiasm for something”. Yeah, I used to have that. And grit? As a quality of endurance “characterised by exertion or diligence”. Doesn’t ring a bell. What does it mean for the over-50s? “What this means is that it is more difficult to mobilise our grit and willpower, even if we have the passion,” said the study’s lead author Prof Hermundur Sigmundsson, of the Department of Psychology at Norwegian University of Science and Technology. “Or we may have the grit and willpower, but aren’t quite as fired up about it.” You know what? My determination to get to the bottom of this has completely evaporated. It’s not too late, though. You can regain some of the old spark by developing new interests and keeping at them. I don’t want to. “‘Use it or lose it’ is the mantra,” says Sigmundsson. “And this aligns with neuropsychology as well.” Is it drinks time yet? No, it’s still morning. Do say: “Age is just a number; I remain as passionate, determined and positive as ever!” Don’t say: “I couldn’t find my glasses, so I went back to bed.”