NewzMore than forty-five years ago, at the beginning of my professional life, an older and wiser man gave me a piece of advice that has remained with me ever since. “What you don’t use, you lose.” I thanked him, nodded, and moved on. I thought I understood exactly what he meant.
At the time, I heard those words as practical advice. It would take me more than four decades to discover just how much wisdom was hidden inside those six simple words. For most of us, the truth of the saying is almost self-evident.
If we stop exercising, our muscles weaken. If we stop speaking a language, we begin to forget it. If we stop playing an instrument, our fingers lose their fluency.
If we stop nurturing friendships, they slowly fade. If we stop challenging our minds, our thinking becomes less agile. The pattern is so familiar that we rarely stop to ask a simple question: Why?
The same pattern appears far beyond our personal lives. Businesses lose capabilities they no longer exercise. Professional expertise disappears when experienced employees retire without passing on what they know.
Institutions drift when they forget the disciplines that once made them successful. Civilizations decline when they abandon the values and practices that enabled them to flourish. It begins when the past stops participating in the present.
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