A word.  It all begins with a single word.  I have struggled to write this first word for over 18 months now. I have finally broken through. Better this day, than waiting until tomorrow or even later. When I set up this blog site I was 56.  Now, I am 58.  I guess I didn’t follow Warren Miller’s mantra after setting up this blog.  “If you don’t do it this year, you will be one-year older when you do.”  Actually, it is even worse than Warren had contemplated.  I am two years older.

Preparing for the Second Half.  What does that mean?  As I said above, I am 58 years old.  I am a male.  I think I am relatively fit and in excellent health.  I frequently wander around podcasts, blogs, Twitter posts, and newspaper and magazine articles dedicated to health, fitness, living your best life, aging, and longevity but these posts and articles are predominantly written by and for people in their 20s, 30s, and maybe, just maybe, someone in their 40s.  While I typically find the information useful, it leaves me wanting for more.  The discussion or information often lacks, or completely ignores, the perspective of someone in my age bracket.  BUT, there are a lot of us and that number is only increasing.  Indeed, you will all be here sooner or later.  Hopefully.

I believe that I am Preparing for the Second Half.  That I have just as much living in front of me as I have in the rear view mirror.  Because of this philosophy, I believe that I have to have a different frame of mind than people typically have had at my age.   I also feel that I have a perspective to offer to others older and younger than myself.  A perspective which will hopefully lead to a dialog with others and further growth for myself and others.  Hopefully, it will also lead to an evolution as to how people approach both halves of the game.

The concept of a growth mindset still applies to how I approach life.  That is why I am Preparing for the Second Half.   The concept of retirement needs to evolve.  Better yet, it needs to disappear.  I do not look at life as disparate segments.  Education. Growth.  Accumulation. Run-off.    That makes no sense to me.  So, I reject it.  Education and Growth are ongoing.  I want to get rid of Accumulation and Run-off.  The only thing I am looking to accumulate is health and fitness, which I want to bank indefinitely. More importantly,  I am not looking to put either of those into run-off.  Everything else can be looked at from a just-in-time financing approach.  It has gotten me this far.  If anything,  given the power of information technology and social media, it should empower me well into the future.

In the days and weeks ahead, I will look to lay out my philosophy.  I will seek to comment on things that I find important to me and others Preparing for the Second Half.  I am not sure where this is going, but that is no different than when I entered this game and the first half started. Perhaps, my dialog will be limited to this medium.  Or perhaps, it will find fertile ground and expand into other forms of discussion.

At  least, the first word has been written.  I have overcome my fear of launching this and I can say the Second Half has truly begun.  Whether or not it will be longer than the first half, we shall see.

DMC