Halftime Adjustments For The Second Half of Life
What do you do when your opponent’s win probability is 96.5%? Super Bowl XLIX (that’s 49 in case your roman number math is rusty) was played on February 1, 2015 in Glendale, Arizona. It pitted the New England Patriots against the defending champion Seattle Seahawks. (Who happen to also be the team I’ve supported since I was a kid growing up in Olympia, WA.)
At the start of the 4th quarter, the Seahawks held a 24-14 lead. No team in the 49 year history of the game had ever overcome a double digit lead in the second half. The odds that the Seahawks were going to win was 96.5%.
If you are a sports fan, you know how it ended. With a brilliant Patriots comeback and the worst play calling in the history of the Super Bowl by the Seattle coach.
Second half comebacks are the stuff of legend. It’s the stuff of movies and aging athletes’ stories.
What’s it have to do with you, me and business?
I turned 50 last year. If you consider that I started my career at WordPerfect in 1989 (Back Where It All Began), at age 24 and I will probably work until I’m in my 70’s, 50 is the middle. (Don’t get tripped up on the math. I realize I’m past halfway, but just go with it.)
I’m not saying that my first half was terrible. In fact, I’m pretty pleased with how the first half has gone. There have been some disappointments, certainly. My il-fated sidetrip to the mid-west comes to mind. But, there have also been some really, really good days. I got to work for Microsoft during a time of incredible growth in the computer industry. I got to travel. I got to write books and teach classes.
But, I’m now looking at the second half and trying to decide “Where do we go from here?”
It’s a question that any of us can ask, and not just when you turn 50. College graduation is a halftime moment. You are leaving school and starting a career, typically. My friend Howard reached a halftime moment while at Novell and turned the second half into a cartooning career.
In fact, every moment can be halftime. All we need to do is decide that we are going to make a change.
As I look forward to the second half of my career, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what it should look like. What do I want to be when I grow up? What activities give me joy and excitement and which ones do I dread? What have I shown that I can be good at?
Some of the things that are ahead for me, or at least that I want to make part of the second half are:
- More education: School was always a means to an end for me. But, I love learning. I want to spend more time just learning new stuff because it’s interesting.
- More writing: I appreciate all of you who follow this blog. I’ll keep writing it, but I also want to write novels, screenplays, songs and comedy.
- More reading: Reading can take you anywhere in this world or beyond. I love to read and need to make more time for it.
- More work: Sounds weird, I know. But, I still have things I want to accomplish in my career. I want to teach, I want to be in a position to share waht I know, or think I know about business. I also want to be influential in my company and industry. I really like the idea of a Chief Data Officer.
- More play: My kids are growing up, but the ones at home are still young enough to enjoy camping, basketball, bike rides and just hanging out with dad. And as they get older, my grandkids will be around.
Remember that setting yoru game plan, doesn’t mean it’s set in stone. It simply means you’ve started on a journey in a particular direction. Regardless of your point in life, tomorrow is always the start of second half. Whether you are going into the second half tied, up big, or down by 10, you have the ability to make adjustments. Be your own coach and make your second half even better than the first.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday at 7:00 AM Mountain Time. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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When I wrote this the bulleted list was actually little dots. I’m not sure if I’m okay that my future goals look like error messages that need to be cleared.