Happy With the Best Tools for Success

[spriscillaraji]

Once and a while, you read a book that grabs your attention, grabs your heart and opens a new thought process. A revelation! One of these books for me is a book entitled "Half Time: Changing Your Game Plan from Success to Significance", by Bob Buford. He uses the metaphor of a football game with two halves, and a Half Time and compares it to our lives. The Instant Switch The first half is one that has been culturally prepared for us: Go to school, get a college degree, get married, get a job, and climb the corporate ladder of success and accumulate material goods (and debt). At some point in time, we all get to the point where we see something is missing, as if we were made for something more. Maybe it is when we see the miracle of the birth of your own child, or when you new promotion doesn't excite you like the last one. We enter into half-time, where we wonder what life is all about, and question the futility of climbing that ladder of success. What are we here on Earth for? The one who dies with the most toys wins, but is still dead. We see the media show us those people who have a lot of wealth and fame, but they are not happy. Many are hooked on drugs, alcohol, and the quest to remain youthful through cosmetic surgeries. So what else is there than just being focused on success. We ponder this as we are in Half Time. Many of us get stuck in Half Time for years. Many will breathe their last breath and still be in Half Time.

According to the author, the way out of Half Time is realizing that the second half is a departure from a futile chase towards success, and refocus on being a humble servant of others and living a life focused on significance. One way of getting out of Half Time into the second half is to perform a probe into that territory. Personally, my wife and I felt led to respond to a call by our former church to go to Romania to build a home for orphans. We came up with reasons not to go. We are too busy, and can't take time off work. It is too expensive. We stayed 3 more years in Half Time.

After moving to Roseville, I said yes to an opportunity to use my project management skills and my love for the youth, to be a leader on a mission trip to Tijuana, Mexico to build a home for a homeless family. During that week, I used all of my personal skills and motivation that I learned from the first Half to help build this family a home. I felt great about my accomplishment, my personal effort paid off. However, when we handed the couple the keys to the front door, the mother looked at me, and the others and said in tears " I thank God for building me this home for my family". I was speechless and emotionally spent. She didn't recognize my efforts, but gave ALL of the credit to God for providing. God provided her a home through my hands and the hands of the other adult leaders and high school kids that took the time to serve. Her statement moved mountains in my heart and I see that as the point when I moved from Half Time into the second Half.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/instant-switch-review-sagasan-ravi