Such is the life of a fraternity pledge. I can still vividly recall being hazed onto the Stanford football field to join the incomparable school band. ABC-TV featured a close-up of me for two seconds. I was nearly naked and dancing like a drunken idiot at the 50-yard line.

I dreaded that halftime experience with every part of my being.

Ironically, two years ago, the notion of halftime came up again. I was scuba diving with my father, and we did some quick math before we went underwater. I was 57 and had taken his life expectancy test and found that I was potentially going to live till age 98. I wasn’t even halfway through my adult life, assuming I started counting at the age in which I officially became an adult (the same age I made a fool of myself on national television). Suddenly, halftime became a word that filled me with promise and hope.

Legendary Alabama football coach Bear Bryant famously said, “Don’t give up at halftime.” Good advice for us all. Is it halftime for you yet? How are you preparing for the second half of your adult life? If the first half was learning the rules, could the second half be about breaking them?