Thanks you very much for sharing this book with me.
I’m reading it whole day, nonstop, and making notes of it.
This book can, and should be read as a story of growth from knowledge into wisdom, of intellectual and spiritual education.
What do I wish to be remembered for?
During the first half of your life, if you are like me, you probably did not have time to think about how you would spend the rest of your life. You probably rushed through college, fell in love married, embarked on a career, climbed up ward, and acquired a few things to help make the journey comfortable.
You played a hard-fought first half. You even have been winning. But sooner or later you begin to wonder if this really is as good as it gets. Somehow keeping score doesn’t offer the thrill it once did.
The first half of life has to do with achieving and gaining, learning and earning. The second half is risker because it has to do with living beyond the immediate. There is a risk in this decision: in tossing aside the security blanket that keeps you safe and warm in your cautiously controlled zone of comfort, you may have to set aside for familiar markers and a reference point. You may feel, at least at first, that you are losing control of your life.
A rising tide lifts all the boats in the ocean. It’s better to be lucky than smart.
There I was, sitting happily through my constructive midlife crisis, hoisting my “one thing” up to them mast into place, spinnaker billowing in the balmy breeze.
Then, without a warning, along came a rogue wave that blow the boat over.
There are two sources of unhappiness in life. One it’s not getting what you want ; the other it’s getting it.
— George Bernard Shaw（萧伯纳）
There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
A time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to mourn and a time to dance...
Halftime, someone calls it “Tunnel of Chaos”.
See you in this time of uncertainty and sensing the pain, risk, and the confusion involved in change, we have a tendency to cling to the known. The future seems to be somewhat fuzzy and the vague, and it doesn’t complete well with the comfort and certainty of our present situation.
In his very helpful book The Age of Paradox, Charles Handy captures this tension in the chapter titled The Sigmoid Curve,
The normal pattern for most people is a single curve that rises as we approach middle age then sharply falls off towards retirement. What Handy recommends is to start a new curve probably while the first one is still rising but certainly before it begins to fall.
I am convinced that part of the secret to a better second half is a proper understanding of self-love. Success in the first half is lonely because it is directed inward. It gains significance in the second half from the “pouring out” of ourselves, our gifts, our talents, our resource. As you begin to hit your stride in the second half, pay attention to yourself.
Lifelong Learning
With all thy getting, get understanding.
All results are on the outside, the inside is only cost and effort.
