The Motivation Of Second Half Thinking
Did you know that the second half of a marathon can go faster than the first? This is called second half thinking. It seems counterintuitive, but in fact it's true — runners who start too fast and then slow down as they fatigue will rarely have enough energy to finish as quickly or run as far as those who don't push themselves too hard at the start. The same can be said for life: If we give up before pushing ourselves, we may end up never reaching our goals.
Second half thinking is much like over-thinking. The problem with all this second-guessing is that we're going too far: instead of picking one goal and trying to reach it, we're spinning our wheels by trying to do it best, fastest, or most efficiently. Second half thinking is not reality; it's overthinking.
Allow me to illustrate the concept. Let's say you want to plan a vacation for the next month. To help get you started, I wrote an article called " How to Plan a Vacation . Here's how the article might go:
1. "I'm going to start planning my vacation by figuring out what I want to do."
2. "I'm going to check my budget and make objectives for how much I can spend."
3. "I'm going to plan my vacation around what I want to do." Then you might come back here and write:
4. "I'm going to figure out which places are closest, where the cheapest flights are, and which islands have good weather." You've already gotten too far down the line — you're losing sight of all you did at the beginning. Instead: 1. "How long will we be gone?" 2. "Do we want to go away, or stay home?" 3. "Do I want to just camp, go to a hotel, or rent a cottage?" Once you've got all the pieces in place (or narrowed down what's important) you can move forward into the planning phase. What is second-half thinking? Second half thinking is when you get stuck trying to decide which is better: which vacation spot? Which hotel? Which cottage? This can lead to over-planning and never taking the leap of all. It's when you get stuck not making a choice because everything is too perfect to decide between. You'll always be "almost" ready — never actually ready. Second half thinking is when we say, "I want to learn French, or Spanish, or Italian." It's when we set these goals but never actually make the effort to take the next step — such as buying the textbook, downloading an app, enrolling in a class. When you're stuck on deciding between two options, rather than trying to make a decision about which option is better and trying to have it both ways (as if that were possible), try instead thinking about what would happen if you only had one option . You're not going to have a wasted trip if you only choose one language. You'll be able to get almost everything done by focusing on one language.
There are times when we need to go all the way with second-half thinking, but that's not always the case. You can choose whether or not to use second half thinking, and when it does work in your favor it can be tremendously productive. But for most situations, second-half thinking should be avoided because it doesn't help you move forward towards what you want in life. Pick something and make a decision on one side of it — that's first-half thinking . Set an objective and try to reach it — that's second-half thinking . Thinking about how you're going to do something can cripple you from actually doing it. The trick is knowing when to use the tools available to us. Hopefully this article will help you understand the motivation of second half thinking, and next time you set a goal or make an objective, take a moment to ask yourself: "Is this something I really want, or just something I've settled for?" And also: "Am I using second half thinking right now?"
If not, don't sweat it. You're probably doing fine.
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Posted by Aaron Caprio at 10:32 PM
If you found this article interesting, please consider buying my second book -- " Mind Hacking and Goal Setting for Business ." Simply type your email address in the box and click the "Buy Now" button. The book is published by Caprio Historian LLC, a business consulting firm based in Westfield, New Jersey. Click here to read more information about the book. The Motivation Of Second Half Thinking | The Thinking Caprio © Copyright 2018 by Caprio Historian LLC. All rights reserved. Posted by Aaron Caprio at 4:56 AM
If you found this article interesting, please consider buying my second book -- " Mind Hacking and Goal Setting for Business . Simply type your email address in the box and click the "Buy Now" button. The book is published by Caprio Historian LLC, a business consulting firm based in Westfield, New Jersey. Click here to read more information about the book. The Motivation Of Second Half Thinking | The Thinking Caprio © Copyright 2018 by Caprio Historian LLC. All rights reserved.
Posted by Aaron Caprio at 10:10 AM
If you found this article interesting, please consider buying my second book -- " Mind Hacking and Goal Setting for Business ." Simply type your email address in the box and click the "Buy Now" button. The book is published by Caprio Historian LLC, a business consulting firm based in Westfield, New Jersey. Click here to read more information about the book. The Motivation Of Second Half Thinking | The Thinking Caprio © Copyright 2018 by Caprio Historian LLC. All rights reserved. Posted by Aaron Caprio at 4:56 AM
If you found this article interesting, please consider buying my second book -- " Mind Hacking and Goal Setting for Business ." Simply type your email address in the box and click the "Buy Now" button. The book is published by Caprio Historian LLC, a business consulting firm based in Westfield, New Jersey. Click here to read more information about the book.
Conclusion
In this section, I've provided a quick summary of the motivations I identified when writing The Motivation of Second Half Thinking. A more detailed discussion can be found in my book, Mind Hacking and Goal Setting for Business . Since forming Caprio Historian LLC in early 2017, I've conducted extensive research on how most people approach goals and objectives. Based on my research, these are the five factors (or motivations) that cause most people to get stuck: "I want it enough that it's worth giving up." The desire for the goal or objective is often what keeps us from making progress. Let's say you want to lose weight. It's not enough that you want to lose weight.