Victim or adventurer – which way is yours? The human brain is capable of casualty or quest - in even the most ordinary day, and what you do decides how the plasticity in your brain wires for or against you.

One boomer I know took photographs last week of a Porsche Racing Event, and plans to submit these for fun and profit. He’s looking forward to seeing several people he knows from the race, flashed across the media … in response to BBC’s invited perspective to publish more of what folks think can happen as they age.

Adventure for this retiree, is woven into the art and science any day can bring because he’s leaving home with wonder and expectation in mind. He admits he’s not much of a photographer, and yet equipped with a new camera, he’s off to capture news he feels proud to submit. His muse might lead Gerry to chat with project leaders, sip hot coffee near the site, research a new addition to digital pictures, or jot down captivating quips to go with digital images he snaps of cars on the fly.

Another boomer I know described a day like this… “I got up late, looked out at the rain, thought about two friends who didn’t call back last week, and decided to stay inside. He watched TV, ate too many carbs and slugged up his brain until it seemed to all of us, as if the song Worms, was written to describe his mournful state. Have you ever lived these words as this man wired his brain through victim choices…?

“Nobody loves me, everybody hates me,
Think I’ll just go eat worms.
Big fat juicy ones, Eensie weensy teensy ones,
Watch how they wiggle and squirm.”

Adventurers look more to inner motivation … while victims, on the other hand, see themselves as more vulnerable than the rest of us, and live their day around that belief. That’s pretty much how the brain rewires through what a person does in a day.

People alive to adventure inspire the rest of us to see similar visions of hope. Like lighthouses they flash…beam … flash … beam … beyond life’s choppier waters, so emotional problems look like mere challenges to call them deeper.

Any adventure for you today? The human challenge is simply to make career choices that count, and the brain’s work is to steer those choices in.