How to Start Your Second Half of Significance and Fulfilling Your Life Purpose

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In the first two articles in this series (read them here and here), I described how Bob Buford asserted in his book, Halftime, that even if you have already achieved much in the first half of your life and professional career, your best days are ahead. Taking Buford’s lead, I described what constitutes a “second half” and how to define your “One Thing” that can propel you toward fulfillment of your purpose or calling. Now, in this final installment, let’s examine how to make it happen – how to move into your second half of significance:

 

A Brief Recap

First, let me share again some highlights from the first two articles in this series:

  • Finding your truth and your purpose doesn’t mean you must turn your back on all you’ve learned and accomplished in your first half. As Buford writes: “You can apply your gifts in ways that allow you to spend more time on things [that matter]. And do it in such a way as to reclaim the thrill of that first deal!”
  • According to Buford, “halftime is not an escape or a more respectable midlife crisis. It really shouldn’t be a reaction to something negative in your life as much as a response to positive hopes and ambitions you are feeling.”
  • Buford, again: “The key to a successful second half is finding your ‘one thing’ and, in the process, finding what the Bible calls a state of joy, or blessedness.”
  • Truly, finding your “one thing” takes effort. It takes introspection. It takes opening yourself to possibilities. It takes an unshakeable desire to move from success to significance.
  • Buford, once more: “Your one thing is the most essential part of you, your transcendent dimension. It is discovering what’s true about yourself, rather than overlaying someone else’s truth on you.”
  • Goals are nice, but commitments are what matter and what propel you to even greater success.

 

Now What? How Do You Make the Halftime Jump?

As Buford writes, “There will always be reasons to stay where you are. It is faith that calls you to move on.” As I noted in this article where I talk about the Steve Harvey “jump”, making the jump is a leap of faith. You’ll need to take lots of deep breaths. You’ll need to take stock of what you are getting yourself into. You’ll need to keep your eyes wide open and maintain keen focus on your goal. But you’ll also need to be prepared for disappointments – and to use those disappointments as learning opportunities that set you up for even greater successes. But as daunting as that may seem, heed Steve Harvey’s keen observation:

“Every successful person in this world has jumped.”

So how do you do that? How can you prepare yourself to jump? To take that leap of faith? Here’s a brief summary of Buford’s advice:

  • Develop a personal mission statement which guides every decision and action.
  • Follow your passion, using your skills, certainly, but holding true to your values and principles.
  • Assess what you’ve achieved and define what you care deeply about.
  • Identify your goals but turn them into commitments.
  • “Do what you do best; drop the rest.”
  • Delegate what you can, “at work play and home.”
  • “Know when to say no.”
  • Downsize and simplify.
  • Set limits and scale back commitments that don’t align with your purpose.
  • “Protect your personal time by putting it on your calendar.”
  • “Work with people you like,” and “work only with those who are receptive to what you are trying to do.”
  • “Work only on things that will make a great deal of difference if you succeed.”

Sound simple? Of course, it’s anything but. Nonetheless, making the jump to a second half of significance is not only possible; it is imperative if you want to live a truly fulfilling life and make the most of your best days which lie ahead.

 

The Bottom Line:

Indeed, most of us yearn to make a difference, to pursue our purpose, to find fulfillment, to live with significance. Bob Buford and Steve Harvey make a stronger case than I can, and I encourage you to seek out their work and their wisdom and apply it to your personal and professional life.

What I CAN do is share with you the difference seeking a second half of significance has made in my life. First half success was great, of course, but it still left me wanting more, wanting something beyond material trappings. I yearned to matter. And I thank God for the gifts that have empowered me to find my calling and to help others find theirs. Sales Xceleration is the culmination of that yearning and that fulfillment. Our team of licensed Sales Xceleration Advisors were once in the same place you are – questioning, yearning, seeking – and they are now using their gifts to act as sales management consultants and help small and medium-sized businesses grow and thrive.

 

If you would like to learn more about how you, too, can become a Sales Xceleration Advisor and follow this path toward a life of second-half significance, click here or contact us today at 1.844.874.7253.