Boundless Potential: Transform Your Brain, Unleash Your Talents, Reinvent Your Work in Midlife and Beyond [Hardcover]

Mark S. Walton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 16, 2012

What is the lifelong potential of the human mind?  Might I have talents or brainpower that I'm unaware of? Can I make money and a difference doing something I love? Is there some science to this or just luck?

Millions of us in our 40's, 50's and 60's face career, financial and personal challenges beyond anything we anticipated--we're filled with fresh uncertainties.

We've seen careers derailed and investments devastated by economic chaos. Some of us have grown restless or burned out in our businesses or professions. Others have unexpectedly 'flunked retirement,' finding the so-called 'golden years' mind-numbingly boring.

However we've come to it, the challenge is the same:  What Now?

Personally driven by this question, Peabody award-winning journalist and Fortune 100 leadership consultant Mark S. Walton set out on his most fascinating assignment yet. Crisscrossing America to meet with remarkably re-inventive people, and researching the latest breakthroughs in brain science, psychology, creativity and happiness, he made three life-altering discoveries:

State-of-the-art neuroscience has revealed that we are hard-wired for reinvention through the emergence of extraordinary new brainpowers in life's second half.

A growing number of men and women are learning to leverage this inborn potential. In midlife, they're raising the bar--inventing profitable new careers, businesses, and avenues for social impact that extend well into their 70's, 80's, even 90's. 

Longevity experts are increasingly convinced that doing work that 'pays it forward' to future generations pays us back in personal long-term health and happiness.

What unrealized possibilities exist for each of us in midlife and beyond?  How do we find and unlock our unique talents and capabilities?  What kinds of people have accomplished this? What can we learn from their experiences?

In Boundless Potential Walton shares his surprising and encouraging findings, weaving first-hand accounts, cutting edge research, and practical lessons into an actionable blueprint for redesigning our lives and work. Entertaining, informative, and empowering, this groundbreaking book delivers overwhelming evidence that we were never meant to downgrade our ambitions or goals, but to continually reinvent them. 

 

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A great book. The mix of history, psychology, neuroscience and profiles of successful re-inventers will hit home with intelligent men and women contemplating their next steps."
-Elizabeth Pope, The New York Times

 "A terrific book. Boundless Potential provides clear and practical advice on how to navigate the transition from work to good work; and if that isn't enough, Mark Walton is a master storyteller."
 -Suzanne Braun Levine, Founding Editor, Ms. Magazine

"No greater challenge faces millions of us than how to create a meaningful, successful second half of life. Mark Walton shows us how to reinvent our 'game' with a practical framework, inspiring examples, and new insights from neuroscience.  I recommend it highly!"
-William Ury Ph.D., International Bestselling Coauthor, 'Getting to Yes,'

 "Brilliant, provocative, highly practical. Mark Walton has punctured the myths of life's second half to reveal our true human potential: how we are hardwired for continual reinvention, personal achievement and contribution to others."
-Michael Murphy, Co-Founder, Esalen Institute, Best Selling Author, 'Golf in the Kingdom.'

"Boundless Potential is must reading. Mark Walton tackles one of the most important issues of our time with thoughtfulness, intelligence and careful analysis: how to harness the talents and energy of the largest generation in American history."
-Mark Miller, Nationally Syndicated Columnist: Tribune Media Services, CBS Moneywatch

From the Author

This book's pages contain the real-life experiences and pragmatic wisdom of uncommon men and women--people who have led the second half of their lives in an extraordinary way.

Each made a conscious choice to raise the bar, rather than lower his or her expectations. They decided to keep "going for the gold" in their way of living--to design and play a different game.

In midlife and beyond, they set out to reinvent their earlier success by creating a new kind of work they could truly love. And in doing so, they built a rich livelihood and legacy based on their full lifetime potential, not just the choices and necessities of earlier years.

As I encountered such people in the process of my research, I came to describe them as reinventive, and, by extension, to label the nature of their pursuits reinventive work.

"Why live on just one cylinder," one reinventive woman asked me, "never experiencing the joy and power of the rest?"

Meeting such individuals and, in particular, conducting the in-depth personal interviews that are an integral part of this book, has been a profoundly awakening experience for me, as I intend that reading Boundless Potential will be for you.

Be assured, this is no volume of theory or chicken soup for growing older.

It is a practical inquiry into the challenges of today and to­morrow, an intelligent person's guide to a fundamentally new--a twenty-first-century--redefinition of the word success.

-Mark S. Walton, Author: Boundless Potential

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 262 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (March 16, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071787852
• ISBN-13: 978-0071787857
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #202,244 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mark S. Walton is Chairman of the Center for Leadership Communication, an education and communication enterprise with a focus on leadership and exceptional achievement at every stage of life. The Center's website location is: www.leadercommunication.com

Mark is an internationally distinguished leadership educator, management advisor and Peabody award-winning journalist whose work at the highest levels of business, government, the military and the media has spanned nearly four decades.

His most recent book is "Boundless Potential: Transform Your Brain, Unleash Your Talents, Reinvent Your Work in Midlife and Beyond" (McGraw Hill, 2012).

His previous book was "Generating Buy-In: Mastering the Language of Leadership," a landmark examination of the dynamics of persuasive leadership, published by the American Management Association in 2004 and selected by Business Week as one of the Top 30 business books of the year.

Mark has been a Professor of Leadership in the U.S. Navy's Advanced Management Program as well as a Senior Lecturer in Management at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he taught leadership and strategic communication at the Senior Executive Institute and in the MBA and Executive MBA programs at the nationally top-ranked Kenan-Flagler Graduate Business School.

While on the Carolina faculty, Mark founded the Center for Leadership Communication, an education and communication enterprise with a focus on advanced leadership and executive development. As the Center's Chairman for the past 15 years, Mark has taught extensively in corporate universities and management development programs and worked individually with CEO's, Division Presidents and a wide range of other senior executives and professionals at many of the world's leading organizations, including: Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, Dow Chemical Company, Duke Energy Corporation, General Electric Corporation, GlaxoSmithKline, NASA, Toyota Motor Corporation and the United States Navy and Marine Corps.

Earlier in his career, Mark was an internationally-recognized network television news anchorman, correspondent and analyst, specializing in political leadership and national affairs. A founding correspondent of Cable News Network (CNN), he served as CNN's first Chief White House Correspondent and, later, as CNN's Senior Correspondent, traveling the nation and world from CNN headquarters in Atlanta. The book 'CNN: The Inside Story' characterizes him as "one of a small group of renegades who changed the face of TV News."

While at CNN, Mark was a recipient of broadcast journalism's premier honor, the coveted Peabody Award, for his role as Correspondent in CNN's live coverage, from Moscow, of the failed Soviet coup in 1991 and the subsequent fall of Communism. His reporting and writing have also been honored with The National Headliner Award, Ohio State Journalism Award, Cable Ace Award, the Gold Medal of the New York TV and Film Festival and the Silver Gavel of the American Bar Association.