Halftime: Moving from Success to Significance

This book is about what to do with the last half of your life, generally in retirement. The idea is that the first half of your life is where you learn and grow, perhaps you have made a few mistakes along the way. But when you approach the last half of your life, that is where the pressure builds up and is where the game is won or lost (to push the sporting analogy). 

Half time is the time before your second half of life when you make plans and assess who you are and where you want to go. The book phrases this as moving from success to significance.

For the second half of your life to be better, you need to take stock of your first half and think about the mistakes you have made (not spending enough time with people?), move out of autopilot and plan a life with meaning and structure. You have to be realistic and see what gifts and resources you have. You need to take time, slow down, and assess what you want to do, to pick just one thing and aim at that. Perhaps even write your own eulogy or gravestone line, to focus on what you want people to say about what you did with your life. Have a mission statement so you know what you are on about. Hopefully, it has something to do with God if you want true significance. The book asks questions and gives practical tips and real-life examples of how to go about all this.

This idea about having a half-time as your move into retirement worked for Bob Buford. Part of this book is a bit biographical as you learn about his own experience. He ran some sort of television company, made lots of money, experienced a tragedy with his son and then phased out his work and started a non-prophet to help unleash the "latent energy in American Christianity into active energy". Bob was also influenced by Peter Drucker, which explains a bit of this book, about being strategic and planning for significance and how to prioritise things in your life.

Near the end of the book it wraps up:

Halftime is more about time and talent than it is about treasure. It starts with the question, “What do I believe?” and moves to “What do I do with what I believe?” It is about taking your God-given talents and all that you have learned in your first-half career and finding ways to use those for the greater good. Few people are able to connect their work to their beliefs in the first half. The second half gives everyone a greater opportunity to do that.

You follow the same process described in this book. Listen to the still, small voice. Locate your mainstream, identifying your “one thing” to put in the box. Spend some time taking stock of what you have to offer in terms of skills, knowledge, and gifts. Explore opportunities to align your passion with others’ needs. You don’t need a penny to do this — just a commitment to listen, study, and explore.

While Bob says this time to reflect on retirement isn't only for rich people who are able to retire well off and can live comfortably doing what they want, I do think there is a hint of that. You may not have to own a multi-million TV company to retire well, but there are some people in our community who may not have the gifts, time or resources that is possibly suggested in this book. Some cultures don't even do retirement.

There is a Christian undercurrent in this book, saying God needs to be in your box of life choices. There is almost this assumption that Christians have bought too much into the American Dream of earning money, climbing the corporate ladder, and raising a family. So then when they are 65 and get to retire, it is only then they can actually start doing something for God and the church. In the first half of life, they were all business and successful, but now there is this thing called retirement which allows you to invest in something eternal, something significant.

Now don't get me wrong, retirement is a good life marker to reassess and plan a course for your life, but I know some mid-20 years olds who have already made choices to do something significant over doing something that will make them successful. It means that by the time they are 65 they probably won't have as much money, but it does mean that when they do retire, they won't need a long hard thing about their life and what they are going to do because serving God will already be a habit for them that they will continue to pick up.

So in one sense, I like the idea of reassessing your life and this book should hopefully help you with that. Socrates (I think) said "an unexamined life is not worth living". In another sense, I think: why wait till you retire? Think about your life and what is important to you now. Have a mission statement and work out what is significant. To help with your thinking Jesus did say:

"What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?" (Mark 8:36)

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal." (Mat 6:19-20)

"So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." (Matt 6:31-34)