Champions: Second Half, Best Half

THE month of June marks the middle of the year. If you set goals at the beginning of the year, it means you have another six months to achieve them. I believe the months and seasons we have in our life are meant to give us another chance. The first six months might have been such a bumpy ride. You feel battered, bruised, used, abused, doomed, and downcast. I have got a word for you today.

Don’t pack your bags yet. You can make the second half of the year the best half. In sports, there is half time to allow teams, to re-fire, recover, reorganize, realign, refocus and get another chance. It is not over until YOU win.

Generation of Champions

You belong to a generation of champions. It’s a generation that is making a difference to this world. You are a visionary heavyweight and not a character lightweight either. You have the tenacity of a pit bull, eye of an eagle and the heart of a lion. You have your eye on the goal, the staying power and the courage to face whatever stands in your way.

Refocus and Re-fire

If you had set out to save US$10 000 and you are now even in overdraft, I bet you feel deflated. The business does not seem to be doing well. You have just failed that Engineering course in the first semester. Your project is behind schedule or off the rails. The economy looks like it has hit a slippery slope. The marriage has become an endurance test.

I counsel you to get into an empty room, switch off your phone and begin to talk your faith. As you do that fear goes out through the window. Reconnect with those moments at the beginning of the year when you conceived those high and lofty goals. If you have your back against the wall, use the wall as a springboard and make a comeback. If on the ropes, get a grip on the rope and find your balance again. If in the corner, catch your breath, stand up and fight. As a champion you might stumble, even fall, but you become a champion because you don’t stay down.

Renew and Reorganize

During half time, the coach, highlights areas of weakness. The team is asked to remedy the deficiencies. In going into the second half, you need to let go of the bad habits, and old patterns. Great teams know how to change their game for a win. If you have been slothful, it is time to add some passion. If you have been lethargic, you need some verve. If in the first half your heart has been weak, you need to get a new heart. If your methods of achieving your goals are not working so far you need to re-jig. We can turn the game on its head.

Get In the Zone

In sport, there is moment called “in the zone”. It is a magical moment.  This is a moment when if you are a soccer striker you are face to face with the goalie, and all you need to do is to tap it in. In rugby, it is when you go for a try, that moment when you are about to get the ball to the line. In golf it is when you hit a birdie, or an eagle, or when you are putting, and it feels like the hole is coming to your putter.

I want to liken the “in the zone” moment to a point in your life called a “kairos moment”. A kairos moment is the time appointed by your Creator for your breakthrough. This moment does not respect the “chronos” which is the normal time (chronology). Where the Kairos and chronos moments intersect is your point of breakthrough. Many call this point a miracle. This is an intervention of the supernatural (kairos) in the natural (chronos). Miracles can be created. Every seemingly difficult situation can change in the second half of the year. You get to that point when you have a heart of a champion and the spirit of a winner. This moment is for the tenacious and those with lots of spirit and heart.

May the second half of the year be your ‘in the zone” and may you encounter kairos moments.

Creating Your Future

The best way to predict the future is to create it. This statement came to my mind today as I just read that GM Motors intends to sell the Hummer division. The current rise in global fuel prices and environmental concerns makes the fuel guzzling Hummer not “so cool” anymore. There are fears the Hummer business will have no takers or at best be sold below market value. Who thought 5 years ago that the Hummer would be under threat? The strategic planners and economic prophets at GM Motors did not see it coming. They failed to create a future for their business because they had limited vision. I recently spoke at a function for women entrepreneurs where I shared about how to “architect a future for your business”. I shared about 3 types of visions which one needs to have. These have practical application to both individuals and corporates. You need to see before, beyond and bigger.

See Before – Telescopic Vision

The Creator has given you the gift of foresight. This is the ability to foretell and forth tell your future. You can build and declare your tomorrow, today. You are the best prophet for your own life. To outsource your future to political analysts, government, economic analysts or employer is at best naïve and at worst irresponsible. Chart your own course. The decisions you make today are the input into your future. The life you live today is a result of what you did or did not do yesterday. Simple? Yes it’s that simple.

To create your future you need to have telescopic vision. This means anticipating the future and positioning yourself for advantage. Henry Ford has been accused of ‘marketing myopia’ because he thought every car must be black and of course be a Ford T-Model. If only he knew there would be mass market cars from Asia like the Tata Indica, Ford Motors would be the biggest and best today. Alas he did not see beyond the horizon. The best way to create your future is to be preemptive and proactive. When you create the future after your own imagination, there are no surprises. You set the context of what happens to you, how and when it happens to you.

See Beyond – X-ray Vision

Foresight alone is not good enough. You need insight. A prophet with insight can predict the future, but without insight cannot decode or understand it. While foresight makes you anticipate the future, insight is the ability to understand issues. It is the ability to join the dots, identify relationships and underlying currents. Even in business, you can not just do a SWOT analysis alone, but use other tools such as PEST analysis, BCG Matrix to get a grip on contextual issues and your business drivers. Have a different kind of investigation of issues. Things are not what they appear to be. Make sense of the nonsense. Shed light on the darkness. Einstein proclaimed that a problem cannot be solved at the same level at which it was created. You need to have a different perspective, incisive analysis of issues and an investigative probing of challenges. The future is in you. Apply your mind, your intellect and spirit and see the future beginning to unfold before you.

See Bigger – Magnifying Vision

A good prophet does not see all doom and gloom. To look into the future with eyes of fear distorts your vision. One Caleb, of old, once went to spy on the land of Canaan. He came back and said, “Guys, what a land, lets go for it”. Those who were with him said “Don’t even start”. They were afraid. But not Caleb. Even at 85 years Caleb asked for a whole mountain of land because he had the energy to work on it. What audacity! He had foresight and insight so his vision was big. How about David vs Goliath? Everybody thought “Goliath is so big, we can’t get him”. David, thought, “Wow, Goliath is so big I can’t miss him!”. A vision of courage magnifies opportunities while diminishing threats. There is so much global inflation, bad governments, fuel woes, aglaflation. So what? With the gift of foresight and insight you look before and beyond all that. You do not quake with negative energy and do nothing, but itch with positive energy to do something.

Create your future today – see before everyone else and see beyond everything else into the big future beckoning.