Halftime. From Success to Significance in Second Half

This afternoon, there were Halftime (Confirmed, for 6 months at least), Halftime (Most Likely) & his Fulltime Homemaker-Wife, 2nd Half (6-year old), 2nd Half (1-year plus), First Half (Quite Permanently So) whose mother's funeral wake was the chief reason for us to gather once again.   All of us were in our late forties and were either at this time of transition (as Bob Buford said in his first book, Halftime) or had already successfully transited to the 2nd half of the game of our lives.

I quickly googled about this book, highly recommended by a Life Coach that Halftime (Most Likely) met recently. 

In his book, Bob asserted that, "Halftime is an important time of transition - the time when a man moves beyond the first half of the game of life.  It's halftime, a time of revitalisation and for catching a new vision for living the second half, the half where life can be lived at its most rewarding...it's a time of personal renaissance; not necessarily one of crisis but it can be a catalyst [that] propel you...from mere success to true significance".

Bob further asserted that the old model of arduous career followed by relaxing retirement should be jettisoned, replaced by the idea that the second half can—and should—be more creative, more impactful, more meaningful, more adventurous, filled with more learning and contribution than the first half.  A successful first fifty years should be viewed as nothing more than a good start."

Jim Collins, in his Foreword for the book, wrote about two approaches to self-renewal (as proposed by John Gardner, former Secretary of Health, Education & Welfare and author of the classic, Self-Renewal):

1. Repotting ourselves into entirely new activities, changing our activities from career to contribution
2. Repotting ourselves in our primary activity - the same one pursued for our first half, i e choosing to renew within a chosen genre or field

Gardner had advised that we should start thinking about “repotting” ourselves every 10 to 15 years, throwing ourselves into challenges that extract hidden strengths.

I am so glad to have taken this 6-month leave of absence, to repot and hopefully, to rev up a new compelling game plan for the 2nd half of my game of life, at least for the next 10 years as a start.