Changes can sky dive you into a new career, or you might climb to a castle on a hill, step into a mutually empowering marriage, or sign up for financial investments of a lifetime.

Unfortunately, you could also jump from your status quo misery, into a nip in the butt from unseen alligators in moats you hadn’t noticed, if you leap before you plan.

Luckily, your brain holds far more resources for change with mind-bending rewards, than most mid-lifers realize. The best way to release you own brain based tool – believe it or not — is to look first at what your brain holds in its cache, to help you plan ahead.

The key is to convert newly discovered facts about the human brain - into tools for changes that put you in a better position as your brain ages.

That’s where 2-footed questions can help. Two – pronged questions help you to draw more from your brain to take on the change you’ve longed for – but felt unprepared to risk in past. People who ask a few brain based questions first, tend to unlock their castles of change, and enter without falling into the alligators’ traps. How so?

The right question opens a new entry point - curiosity - which also creates a sort of mental map or illumined neuron pathway that lands you into a better place. It’s less about the length of the journey, or the steepness of terrain, and much more about the clarity of the flight.

Here’s one question to ask before you take your next big leap ….

Are you too old to jump from an airplane? If the younger generation sees you as an old sock – you are likely too old to any make exciting changes you have in mind. Don’t even try in your current state– cause the alligators are waiting for you. Luckily new discoveries about the brain, though, can work in even an old sock’s favor.

Seriously, if you feel motivated to give change a shot, for instance, you’ll find some practical ways to jumpstart and rewire your brain in Ronald Kotuluk’s book, Inside the Brain. There you’ll discover, for example, brain chemicals called “neurotrophic factors” which keep cells communicating with one another are now being tested for ways they can help grow new brain cells… It’s based on the premise that when these factors disappear or shrink … that process inhibits a brain’s potential to create new brain cells or to replace missing ones.

Luckily the human brain comes with its own plasticity - that allows you to rewire plans for the change you have in mind. It’s a bit like planning for the jump of a lifetime, only it offers you a guaranteed parachute that will open and guide you to safe ground, regardless of age or past experiences.

It takes new choices at time – much like these mid-lifers made for active citizenship and action.

Daily changes in brain cells are sustained and stimulated by physically changing your brain’s makeup, and this is done through life’s experiences and through daily learning. The changes continue well beyond our golden years though… which is good news for those of us who feel at time, that our brains are slowing down.

Be careful, at the end of day though, so that you don’t lose your teeth in a jump as this woman did.

Maybe Helen Keller said it best when she said … “Life is either a daring adventure or it is nothing at all….” Do you agree?