Mark Conner Soul Food

Soul Food Episode 22 – Halftime

Hi friends. Welcome to this week’s edition of Soul Food.

The late Peter Drucker was one of the first people to note that 100 years ago, most people only lived till around the age of 50. Nowadays, people are living into their 90s and many to 100 and beyond. It’s like we’re the first generation to have two halves of life – and we are totally unprepared for it. 

If you’re 50 years of age, you may have already had 30 years of vocational contribution (your first half) and you could still have another 30 years ahead of you (your second half).

Of course, the old 3-stage model of life – (1) education, (2) vocation, then (3) retirement – just doesn’t work anymore. If you look to finish working in your mid-60s, then that’s a potential loooong retirement period – doing what? 

Nowadays, most people will have multiple jobs and/or vocations throughout their lifetime. So the stages of life will probably go from Education to Vocation 1, to possibly some up-skilling and more Education before Vocation 2, then extending our contribution late into life through part time or extended voluntary work before full retirement. 

So where are you in your journey of life? 

If you’re in your mid to late 40s OR early 50s, there is a huge benefit in scheduling a planned ‘halftime’. 

In any sports game, halftime is an opportunity to pause … to catch your breath, then to look back on the first half and think about how things are going. What’s going well that you want to continue into the second half? What’s not going so well that you want to change? Most of the time, we don’t want to let the second half simply be a repeat of the first. We want to make some adjustments. 

In the game of life, the first half is often a time when we focus on success – whatever that may mean for us. In the second half, many people want to make a shift to significance. Our values often change, as does what has meaning for us.

Of course, you don’t have to wait until middle age to choose to live a life of significance. Success and significance can work together, as long as we have thought deeply about what truly matters to us – beyond the noisy chatter of the culture we live in. 

Don’t keep living your life without even thinking about it, stuck on ‘auto pilot’. Maybe it’s time to schedule some extended time aside by yourself – take a retreat. Have a halftime. You’ll be glad you did!

Let’s recap our main points:

  1. We are one of the first generations to live long enough to have two halves of life.
  2. The old 3-stage model of life – education, vocation, retirement – needs to be re-thought.
  3. Everyone, no matter what age, benefits from taking a ‘halftime’ to pause and evaluate their life.
  4. Choose to focus on living a life of ‘significance’, not merely a ‘successful’ one. 

That’s all for today. See you next week.

You can watch a video of this episode on the Soul Food YouTube channel.

See also my BLOG post on “Is Our View of Retirement Still Working?“, as well as Bob Buford’s best-selling book Halftime: Moving from Success to Significance which discusses the concept of ‘halftime’ in-depth, or visit the Halftime Australia website for even more resources.

Mark Conner Personal Development, Soul Food

Soul Food Episode 18 – Time Out

I am a sports lover – especially basketball and football. In any sports game, from time to time a team will take a time out. A time out is a pause in the action where everyone can take a quick breather …. and think about how the game is going.

It’s the same in life. We can easily become so busy living our life that we don’t take time to STOP … and think about how’s going. Do we know our why? Are we becoming the person we really want to be? Are we heading in the direction we want to be going? If we don’t take a time out, we can tend to drift and our good intentions never become reality. 

One of the most helpful habits I have established for myself is a weekly Time Out. It’s a 60-90 minute appointment with myself. I think it’s one of the best uses of your time you could ever make. 

So what do you do in a weekly time out?

Firstly, it’s a chance to review the next steps you have set for yourself. A goal set and never looked again at is merely a wish. It’s so easy to drift and forget who we want to be and what we want to accomplish. We can easily be distracted and the urgent squeezes out the important. Reflecting on our next steps regularly ensures we stay on track with where we are headed. 

Secondly, it’s an opportunity to review the previous week. Look back over your diary and reflect on what happened – your your relationships, your meetings, your appointments. Gather all your loose ends – messages, emails, tasks, incomplete projects, mail, or anything else in your ‘inbox’. 

Finally, it’s a chance to preview the coming week. What commitments do you already have? Is your time going towards what is important? Do you need to make any changes or get released from previous agreements? What steps could you take towards achieving your goals? Do you have rest and recovery time? Time for self-care and fun?

I’ve been doing this for many years now and would say its one of the best habits for effective living. I have done my weekly Time Out on Fridays some years and on Mondays at other times, but right now I like to do it on Saturday or Sunday afternoon. Find what works for you and how often. Maybe every few days is better for you or once a month. 

Successful people know their priorities and focus their energy on them. They know what is important and they keep ‘first things first’. They use their time wisely and they ensure that urgent things don’t keep them from doing what is really important.

What’s your purpose? What’s your priority? What’s most important? What next steps are you aiming to accomplish? The issue is not whether next year will be busy but what it will be busy with. Lots of activity does not always equal significant accomplishment. A weekly Time Out helps us keep on track. 

Let’s recap our main points:

  1. A regular Time Out is one of the most important life habits. 
  2. Take time to review your next steps on a weekly basis. 
  3. Take time to review your previous week and prepare for the coming week. 
  4. Successful people know their priorities and focus their energy on them.

That’s all for today. Soul Food will be taking a break over the month of January. We’ve done 18 episodes so far. Why not review some of the ones you missed or that were most helpful to you. See you in February!

You can watch a video of this episode on the Soul Food YouTube channel.

For further reading, see Getting Things Done by David Allen, The Essentialist by Greg Kckeown, and First Things First by Stephen Covey.