Edited by Dr KK Tse
Recently, a lady friend of mine kicked off the second stage of her life by moving from
‘importance to significance’, following the mission advocated by Bob Bufford in his book, Half Time: Changing Your Game Plan from Success to Significance, to move from the first half of life as a ‘quest for success’ to the second half as ‘a journal to significance’.
Welcome to the Half Timers’ Club
I googled the book right away and without waiting for getting hold of a copy, I tried to find out more about it. The basic insight is simple but powerful.
It calls for a paradigm shift;
when you approach 50, imagine yourself standing at half time.
Half time represents a lot of opportunities. Yes, half of the time is gone, but there is still a full half time ahead of you. Still 海闊天空. Before 50, the author said, you might want to focus on ‘success’, but after 50, you should think in terms of ‘significance’.
“There are two great dates in a person’s life – the day we were born and the day we discover why.” – William Barclay
At HKSEF, we are pleased to witness an increasing number of people who have taken a new perspective of their life. Some have become social entrepreneurs and some are contributing their expertise and experience to provide support to social entrepreneurs.
Herein lies the source of strength and potential of the social entrepreneurship movement.
In Bob Bufford’s book, there is a table contrasting the so called ‘mid-life crisis’ and the mindset of the Half Timers. I have adapted it into Chinese as follows:
『中年危機』
- 對年齡產生恐懼
- 患得患失
- 焦慮、不安
- 收窄興趣範圍
- 無心鑽研新事物
- 感到心力交悴
- 直覺式反應
- 封閉自己、減少應酬
- 對別人的議程有反叛性的反應
『人到半場』
- 對未來充滿憧憬
- 輕裝上路
- 渴望、感恩
- 擴闊興趣範圍
- 有心、有時間鑽研新事物
- 感到興趣盎然
- 策略性思維
- 開放自己，樂於結交新朋友
- 自訂議程，操之在我
- 樂意接受新挑戰
I am happy to say that one of the greatest satisfactions getting involved in the Social Entrepreneurship Forum is that you are always meeting new Half Timers.
