Ask any young adult in their twenties about their aspirations for the future.
They are captured by the promises of success.
Not one of them aspire to be a Walmart door greeter at the age of eighty five.
Not one.
These starry eyed future leaders to be will have among them an abundance of self proclaimed professional athletes, entertainers, actors, CEO’s, national news anchors, Navy Seals, doctors, lawyers and a plethora of entrepreneurs.
There may be one or two educators that dream of opening up the doors of academic excellence to the young minds of America.
And an ever so slight chance one of them may be drawn to a faith based vocation or to be an advocate of global and social change.
Except for the educators and those pursuing careers in the non-profit world, these young adults will have high expectations of compensation, without initially understanding the investment of time and effort that must go into their dream of return on investment.
Their youthful 20’s lead into their 30’s, and into their 40’s, as they work to accumulate wealth, material assets and display the perfect family.
Yet, now here they sit, in their late 40’s, or in their 50’s, and they are watching their life play out on the mental monitors of their memory and only see their life as it was, not as they wish it to be.
They are in the half time of their life.
Bob Buford, wrote about this subject in his best selling book, Halftime.
In the book, one’s halftime is described as the years between the ages of 45 and 62.
A time when a person realizes that the first half of their life was focused on success, and it’s pursuit.
And in the second half of their life when a person determines the focus should be on significance, and it’s pursuit.
Buford wrote in Halftime, “For the second half of life to be better than the first, you must make the choice to step outside of the safety of living on autopilot. You must wrestle with who you are, why you believe what you profess to believe about your life, and what you do to provide meaning and structure to your daily activities and relationships.”
Achieving significance is incredibly more difficult than achieving success.
Success can be gained and lost.
Significance once achieved is rarely lost.
A successful life does not mean you have lived a significant life.
However, a significant life validates a successful life.
Regardless of which half you may currently be living, you can determine, before or after your halftime to make your life significant.
The opportunity for significance is never behind you, but always in front of you.
Pursue significance and guarantee your success.
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