Nothing Gets REAL Till the Second Half. NOW is the Second Half!

If you pay much attention to sports – and even if you do not – it is hard to miss the fact that the action that matters most almost without fail takes place in the second half. Getting points in the first half is nice, but largely unimpressive.

Let’s face it, the first half is just the first half. People talk. People get up and down from their seats . .flip through the channels . . go out to the restroom . . get a bite to eat . . flip through the channels.

Why? The general feeling is that nothing spectacular is going to happen till some time after the mid-point. Up until then, many of us  just have to find the least boring way to make it through.

Even if you are “lucky” enough to be at a game, it’s the same thing – minus the channel flipping.

Most often, that feeling of “first half boredom / second half thrill” is pretty much on target.

The part of the game you pay to see doesn’t make its entrance till the half has come and gone. Actually, in fact, the part you really pay to see doesn’t happen till the last few minutes if the game and the teams are worth their salt.

In any case, we’re talking second halves . . make or break plays . . down to the wire . . you get my point.

From Small Games to Big Games

And it isn’t just sports. The very same thing happens in all flavors of negotiations, from unions to politics . . local level to multi-national scale. Nothing of any note can be counted on happening till the second half.

Since a major one of the multi-national brand is going on right now in Copenhagen, Denmark, let’s talk climate change for a moment. Whatever you might think about the topic, for this week and the next you won’t avoid hearing about the discussion.

(A little out on the fringes, are we? Hmmm. Well, if you’ve any doubt about the magnitude of what’s taking place over these couple weeks among world leaders and representatives of affected parties,  Hopenhagen and Real Climate are a couple great sites to visit and get your bearings.)

You may believe in the impact of climate change, and our role in exacerbating it. You may not. That’s another discussion for another time.

What I’d like you to do right now is just pay attention to what’s going on – what’s being traded for what and by whom, who’s saying and doing what – in this first week of the conference.

Then I want you to come back again for the second week’s discussion, and see how the tone and the pressure have kind of ramped up. I guarantee they will. There’s too much at stake, and there are too many win/lose propositions in play, for it to be any other way..

And that’s exactly the point I’m trying to make. The first week of the conference should – for the most part – be quite civil, welcoming, and uneventful. High on flurry and chest pounding, but pretty low on substance.

First impressions are being made and solidified.

A few small jousts are taking place.

Big player embarrassment factors are in play.

Demands and offerings are flying back and forth, though no one expects much of any of them. After all, this is just the first half.

And whatever else we might wish it could be, the first half is just the first half. People talk. People get up and down from their seats . . make a proposal or two . . go out to the restroom . . get a bite to eat . . rant a little, rave a little . . make a proposal or two.

Though I could be proven wrong this time around, I seriously doubt that anything truly serious or world-shaking can be expected till next week – the second half.

In fact I’m willing to bet I’m on fairly firm ground when I say that the shorter the time left in that second half . . the more the world is watching . . the closer all involved will get to making some real decisions.

And however much flimming and flamming and spitting and fuming goes on in the back rooms, we all know how much pressure there is for everyone there to bring something with some sort of teeth back home.

(The teeth may be awfully dull by the time everyone’s done filing them down to their satisfaction, but maybe some stubs will be left. And maybe those stubs will be enough to take a bite out of all the bigger emitters’ happy juice just long enough to make change seem possible to the rest of us.)

In any case, we’re talking second halves . . make or break bargaining . . down to the wire . . you get my point.

From Big Games to Basic Instincts

Okay, you say. Second halves. Power plays. Monster negotiations. Cool.  ………………… but what does all of that have to do with you?

Fair enough.

What I’ve been trying to get you to see here is how much more importance  . . actually, how much more urgency . . we place on the decisions, acts – the game points – of life’s second half than those of the first.

And it isn’t just sports. And it isn’t just multi-national conferences and negotiations that affect everyone. It’s actually about you, and me . . where we live.

It’s about how we look at things differently when we’re somewhere past the midpoint of our lives.

It’s about how we see things differently when we’re past the midpoints of our lives.

It’s about how we understand things differently when we past the midpoints of our lives.

In the first half of life, particularly in the first quarter or so, we make big decisions – for and about ourselves (i.e., marriage, education, first jobs, etc.). But we make those choices more from points of expectation and emotional perspective than from real life experience.

(If you don’t have experience, it’s hard to rely on it. And let’s face it: When we’re young, we just don’t have it.)

So, as we move through the first half, what we have is not driven by the force – or the voice – of wisdom.

Neither is it even driven for the most part, sadly enough, by the force of having listened to the voice of wisdom.

Nope. Think base instincts here.

(It’s truly amazing, given the shorter lifespans of our ancestors, that our species has survived as long as we have . . and that the world has survived this long given our penchant for mayhem and destruction.)

The excitement. The chest thumping. The drama.

Ahhhh, the joy of first half simplicity. A little food. A little drink. A little sex. A little more sex.

It’s all about show. Well, much of it is.

The first half of life is all practice  . . preparation. It’s all positioning.

Who’s on top? Who wants badly enough to get there that they’re willing to volley?

It’s a dance – of sorts.

But it isn’t real! It isn’t really real.

REAL takes time, and knowing there isn’t enough of it.

It takes the second half – midlife or later.

It takes knowing we have limits.

It takes knowing that the time we have left has limits, even though our passion for whatever the cause is does not . . even though the demand for our expertise does not . . even though need does not.

And that, my friend, is why nothing gets REAL till the second half. Until we realize how short our time is compared to how great the need for our help, we won’t commit to nearly enough.

From Basic Instincts to What’s Real NOW

This is the second half – for me . . you perhaps . . many of the problems that haunt us.

This is REAL.

We’re talking second halves . . make or break plays . . down to the wire . . you get my point.

What will it take for you to see it and commit yourself to some part of it before the final bell?

NOW is the second half – our second half.

The time is NOW.

And NOW IS REAL!

Keep growing my friend,

Gail

Tagged as: climate change, Copenhagen, experience, first half of life, Hopenhagen, limits, Midlife, midpoints, negotiations, politics, Real Climate, reality, second half, wisdom