Don’t look at the weather report; look at your calendar: it’s change-of-seasons time. Whatever your routines were for summer are now set aside as you reload for the fall. You had some flex ‘til last week; work contacts grant some grace and give some slack until Labor Day. Then, the game clock kicks back into action and the grind gets going again. Are you ready for the change?

            Routines follow rhythms, and rhythms synchronize with seasons. It’s true in a yearly cycle; it’s also evident in a life cycle. It’s easy to fall into a short-horizon mindset and navigate with a constantly resetting 12-month horizon; that’s what managers are prone to do. But if you’re who I think you are – a leader who sets the tone for the team around you – your life cycle keeps calling you into a longer view.

            It was 30 years ago when my friend-and-mentor Bob Buford made Halftime an operative concept in life cycle thinking. His book – with that title – set in motion a reimagination of the way thoughtful leaders would organize their life planning.

            Bob’s big idea: the middle of life introduces a competition for achievement that defines and drives leaders. Imagining accomplishment and declaring victories rings the bell for a few decades, but there comes a point when there are more years on the horizon but less celebration in the aftermath. What happens when success no longer hits the spot?

            The Halftime subtitle answers the question with concision: changing your gameplan from success to significance. With no claim for parody with the Scriptures, I think God inspired that line from Bob to destabilize the temptation to run up the score in the game of life with no sense of purpose.

            Here’s a quick distinction to clarify differences: success measures impact in the moment; significance measures impact in Eternity.

            Jesus had a rinse-and-repeat theme that characterized His messaging for three years: it was what his biographers called “the Gospel of the Kingdom.” Before the Gospel of Salvation emerged from His death/burial/resurrection and was summarized by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15: “By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you…” He had the Good News that would follow.

            The Gospel of the Kingdom challenged Jesus’ listeners to reset their lifestyles in preparation for what was coming later, rather than to invest what they had today for quick returns and expiring payoffs. Positioning oneself for recognition and reward in the afterlife was the catalytic breakthrough that He was inviting people to embrace. To change their gameplan from success to significance.

            Shifting gears from the esoteric to the engaging, here’s the insight: living for significance is the ultimate reimagination that Jesus made possible.

            Let me bring that into our continuing conversation. Two weeks ago, I suggested that the bottom-line was to be clear about your upline – the mentors who invested in you – your bloodline – the family next-gens who need more than your tangible assets – and your downline – the potential beneficiaries of your meaningful mentoring, demonstrated with your family progeny but extended to your spiritual productivity. If Paul had any genetic children, we have no record… but his citation of multiple “sons in the faith” assured that his downline would define him in Eternity.

            Here’s the point: if you’re still in Q2 of life – in search of success – you need a mentor from Q3/Q4 to help set you up for your God-honoring future. If you have no more room for accolades on your wall – or have stepped out of your active-duty status to “enjoy the fruits of your success” – it’s time to get busy with things that matter even more than your early-life victories that are fading fast.   

            It may be time to take this seriously: what’s your plan to leave a legacy that includes, but is not limited to, your human family? The “American dream” of upscale retirement is no satiation for what eats at now-retired winners whose value is at risk of expiration through missing what should be next.

            I’ve got two audiences reading this week’s taunt: First Halfers who are still on the hunt for success. If that’s you, here’s my question: who do you have to mentor you toward a life of balance, margin and focus? How are you going to guard against thinking that “success” is the ultimate?

            And, if you’re one of my Second Halfers who – like me – are looking for relevance, but know that it involves something with eternal value: what are you doing to build your downline through identifying and impacting First Halfers who need life-on-life imprint from someone who’s been where they are but have found new answers on the road less traveled?

            The Gospel of the Kingdom downgrades success but elevates significance. Neither happens by chance, but to settle for success and miss significance results in massive eternal consequences.

            You’re successful? Congrats! Are you in halftime? It’s time to ask the next question: who’s in your downline? That question – asked and answered – can set you up for eternal significance and expose a satisfaction that the world’s alternatives cannot replicate.

            More next week.

 — Bob Shank