Halftime Resolutions

There's a new blog in town! I have been talking about this for at least a year now...hey its a new year and I resolve to become a blogger!

Speaking of New Year's resolutions, I have a suggestion: Let's do something different this year. Let's make a halftime resolution. Yep, halftime. Imagine for a minute that you are exactly half-way through your life here on earth. (Hint: Multiply your current age by 2. You are in the locker-room at halftime fixin to go out and play the second half of the game called life. Pause for a minute...put yourself in the lockeroom...go all the way with it...the smell of sweaty bodies, the gatorade spilt on the floor, the trainers retaping the star player's ankle, and then the coach steps in to the middle of the room to discuss the adjustments that need to be made for the second half.( I have always wanted to be a coach, so now imagine the coach that's talking is me.)

Its halftime and as your coach I want to ask you a series of questions. The answers to these questions will help you decide how you will play the rest of the game.

First – who do you need to thank? None of us reaches the milestone events in our life without the significant love, support and encouragement of others. So, as you think about the successes and achievements you have enjoyed, who do you need to thank? Thank them personally, write them notes, send them letters. You have no idea the impact your call or your note will have on them.

I have done this many times, but somehow those thank yous didn’t ever seem to adequately express the full gratitude I have for those who have invested deeply in my life. So I decided that the best way to thank them is to pay it forward - To try to be to others what those people were to me.

This leads me to my second question: Who are you investing in? You have had others pour themselves into you, and you have been blessed by it. Now, who will you pour yourself in to? Who will you invest in?

Here’s a third question: Who do you need to forgive? Along the way we have had people who have hurt us, slandered us, and betrayed us. In order to play the next half of your life at full capacity, you need to shed the bitterness and the resentment that holds you back. I have seen too many people shackled by unforgiveness. So forgive them. The Apostle Paul provides some great advice on this mater in Ephesians 4: 31-32:

"Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you."

So, we have three questions about our relationships:

• Who do you need to thank?


• Who will you invest in?


• Who do you need to forgive?

Now let’s turn to your work. I would like you to begin to think differently about your work during this next season of your life. In his book, Halftime, Bob Buford makes this observation: Most people spend the first half of their life trying to be successful, and the second half trying to be significant. Success is often measured by possessions and positions. Yet significance is measured by the difference you make that will last beyond your life on this earth. Significance has to do with your legacy. So let me ask you: What will your legacy be? What difference will you make in your sphere of influence?

Let me issue a challenge here: Too many people hide behind their lack of formal authority, their lack of a title, or lack of a formal position. To me that is work avoidance. I believe that all of us can be difference makers, even without formal authority. (Remind me to tell you the Phil K story sometime. It's a great illustration of what I am talking about)

Well, I have challenged those without formal authority and positions. Let me now challenge those who do have formal authority. You have a power base to operate from and because of your position people are dependent on you. How will you handle their dependency? Will you use your power for their benefit or your own? Will you be a servant-leader or a self-serving leader? It really boils down to this one question: What is your motive?

I began this blog by suggesting that this is really a halftime talk in the locker room of the game of life. And as I have asked you to consider these questions, I must also admit that I have been asking myself these halftime questions lately. I am currently transitioning from a 4 year tour of duty as the dean of the largest MBA program in the southwestern United States. I am taking a sabbatical for the next 4 months and then returning to the classroom full-time in the summer.

I have found a great scripture that helps me sort through these questions. It comes again from the Apostle Paul (you'll see - I really like Paul!), and again from his letter to the Ephesians (Ephesians 2:8-10):

"For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them."

In my journal over the last several months, I have been asking God to show me those good works that He wants me to walk in. I have also been evaluating new opportunities through this grid by praying: “Lord is this one of those good works that you prepared beforehand for me to walk in?”

As you prepare for the next half of your life, let me encourage you to not omit God from your planning. Too often we are “practical atheists” – we claim to know Him yet live our lives and make decisions as if we didn’t.

Four years ago, the faculty of the Graduate School of Management and the president of the University asked me to serve as Dean. I resisted their invitation because I felt that I was doing a great work in the classroom and having a significant impact on the lives of my students. In fact I paraphrased an Old Testament character, Nehemiah, who was rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem by saying:

"I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?" (Nehemiah 6:3)

Now I am returning to that great work with the intent of finishing strong during the second half of my life. My goal is to make intensely intentional investments in the lives of those around me. I believe that this is one of the good works that God has prepared beforehand for me to walk in. In fact, I believe it is a great work that deserves my focused attention – and with His help, I will not come down until it is finished.

My hope for each one you is that you would discover the good works that God prepared beforehand for you to walk in and that among those good works you would find that great work that energizes and consumes you – a great work that will define your legacy. A great work that will not only allow you to be successful, but to be significant.

Here's a prayer for you as you star this new year - as you start the second half of your life. I found at the end of Craig Groeschel's latest book It: How Churches and Leaders can Get It and Keep It:

May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and the exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom, and peace.

May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, and starvation, so that you may reach out to your hand to comfort them and turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.

And I add: May God bless you with a vision for the second half of your life, a vision that engages you in a great work that allows you to say " I am doing a great work and I cannot come down!"