You know the feeling, it's frustrating, it's annoying, and maybe it's a little embarrassing. It's that feeling of having something at the tip of your tongue, something you once knew, but no longer do, something, maybe, as simple as the three branches of the United States government or an anniversary (that can put you in the doghouse) or the name of a business associate or client who you've been working with for a while (yikes!!).

You might have experienced a decline over the years in your recall of certain things, but this is not a given. There are, in fact, things that we can do to lessen these 'senior moments', by exercising our brains in unfamiliar ways, we can help them to stay agile and powerful.

Some people keep their brains agile with crossword puzzles or Sudoku (if they prefer going it alone) or games such as Scrabble if they like the more social aspect. These are all great activities to "aerobically exercise" the mind.

Studies have shown that older adults neither see, hear, taste, nor feel as accurately as younger people do and this is partially due to the fact that once people retire, they tend to do things that they are good at, things that don't challenge them incredibly. So part of the key to keeping your brain agile is giving it new, different activities and problems to challenge it.

There are also biochemical responses that are vital to stimulating the mind and inspiring people to keep learning. When we are young we have the freshness of everything, a novelty in the unexplored that keeps us engaged in the process of learning. The other thing we have going for us, which when you're a kid is a huge motivator, is the concept of being rewarded for what we do.

So how can I apply this to persuasion? Well, when we study persuasion, a fortunate byproduct is that we enhance our brains immeasurably through the challenges of thinking a new way.

Studying the 36 Chinese stratagem and the 24 doorways of Magical Objection Mastery, we are flexing from macro to micro, in essence, looking at situations from different angles to determine how best to engage.

What does this do for us and why do our brains find it so challenging? Well, maybe it's not a part of your brain you use very often. Enhancing our cognitive agility can be hard, but is so worth the effort.