Why Your Most Fruitful Years May Still Be Ahead Of You
Many leaders around my age carry an underlying assumption, that their best years are behind them.
Energy fades.
Opportunities change.
Younger voices emerge.
And with that, influence slowly slips away.
But what if the opposite is true?
What if the second half of your life could be your most fruitful season?
What if we could be that person spoke of in Psalm 1:3
“…like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither –
whatever they do prospers.”
The Lie About Age
Speaking personally, I’ve noticed something strange over the years.
For a long time the imposter (or accuser’s?) voice in my head said: You’re too young.
Too inexperienced.
Too early.
Not ready yet.
And then, almost without warning, that voice changed.
Suddenly it was saying:
You’re too old.
It struck me one day that the enemy uses the same tactic in different ways. First telling you it’s too early, then telling you it’s too late – any way to get you out of the game – to become a spectator instead.
Both lies are designed to stop you living fully now and stepping into the next season God has for you.
The Questions Change
In that previous post I suggested that leadership questions evolve across the decades.
In your twenties you are wrestling with identity.
In your thirties the challenge becomes priorities.
In your forties life invites deeper reflection.
But somewhere around midlife, the question changes again.
Now it’s less What can I build?
More:
What will outlast me?
That question marks the beginning of what many writers call the second half of life.
Learning To Number Our Days
Psalm 90 contains a remarkable prayer:
“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
That prayer isn’t about counting days anxiously.
It is about seeing life with perspective.
Realising that time is not endless.
And that wisdom grows when we begin to see our lives in light of God’s purposes rather than our own ambitions.
The second half of life often begins when leaders start praying that prayer more honestly.
Recognising The Seasons
The writer of Ecclesiastes reminds us:
“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1)
Leadership is no different.
There are seasons for building.
Seasons for stretching.
Seasons for leading from the front.
And there are seasons for guiding others forward.
The key question becomes:
What season am I in right now?
And perhaps just as importantly:
What season might God be preparing me for next?
Many leaders struggle because they try to keep living in a season that has already passed.
But wisdom learns to recognise when God is inviting us into something new.
The Midlife Pivot
Leadership thinker Arthur Brooks describes a shift that often happens in midlife.
Early in our careers we rely heavily on what he calls fluid intelligence.
Speed.
Creativity.
Rapid problem solving.
But as life progresses something else becomes increasingly valuable.
Crystallised intelligence.
“…if your career relies solely on fluid intelligence, it’s true that you will peak and decline pretty early. But if your career requires crystallized intelligence—or if you can repurpose your professional life to rely more on crystallized intelligence—your peak will come later but your decline will happen much, much later, if ever. And if you can go from one type to the other—well, then you have cracked the code.” Arthur C Brooks. From Strength to Strength
That ‘crystallised intelligence’ is of course what scripture calls wisdom, often gained through perseverance to attain perspective. The ability to not just focus on or consume information but to connect patterns and as a result guide others.
If we can make that transition then the second half of life is not about losing value, it’s about changing how our value is expressed. From how we perform to what we pass on.
From Success To Significance
Years ago Bob Buford captured this transition in his book Halftime. I remember being shocked by the twist in his tale (I won’t spoil it for you, do read the book and how that opened his eyes that he like so many of us spend the first half of life pursuing success.
Achievement.
Recognition.
Building something, a name?
But the second half invites a shift from success to significance.
Not abandoning productivity.
But asking a deeper question:
Who benefits from my life now?
“For the second half of life to be better than the first, you must make the choice to step outside of the safety of living on autopilot. You must wrestle with who you are, why you believe what you profess to believe about your life, and what you do to provide meaning and structure to your daily activities and relationships.” Bob Buford, Halftime
That’s when leadership moves from building platforms to building people.
Falling Upward
Franciscan writer Richard Rohr describes the same journey in Falling Upward, as he suggests the first half of life is about building the container.
We establish identity, fill out our CV (resume) through
Careers.
Roles.
Responsibilities.
But the second half is about discovering what that container is actually for.
The first half builds the life.
The second half fills it through developing the spirit, finding the meaningful human contents that the container was meant to hold and he says “falling” is not just inevitable but necessary for spiritual growth because it’s only in facing our fallings and coming to grips with our imperfections that we become fully human.
This transition then will usually involve letting go of things that once defined us, to make room for something deeper to emerge.
Why The Second Half Can Be The Best
If and when leaders embrace this shift, and come to terms with their past and learning from it rather than yearning for it – something remarkable happens.
The second half of life can become the most fruitful part of the story, because it is shaped less by ambition and more by wisdom, less by proving who you are and more by giving yourself away.
Leaders who age well become:
- mentors
- encouragers
- spiritual fathers and mothers
- guides for the next generations
That’s how their influence multiplies rather than diminishes.
But There Is One Big Obstacle
There is one thing that often prevents leaders from entering this stage well.
Busyness.
Many of us become so caught in activity that we never pause long enough to discern the deeper invitation of midlife.
We simply keep doing what we have always done, or trying to find more efficient ways to beat the clock or the Calendar by doing more;
Faster.
Harder.
Longer.
But the second half of life rarely opens through rapid acceleration. It comes through reflective attention.
The Question For Today
So perhaps the most important question you can ask today is this:
What season am I in right now?
And just as importantly:
What season might God be inviting me into next?
Because life is going to kick that ball your way soon and the best players have thought through what they will do with it when it does.
Leadership is not simply about what we do but fruit that lasts come by faithfully walking through the seasons God gives us. And sometimes the richest fruit grows and the true harvest happens later.
Coming Next
In my next post I want to explore that further – the issue that quietly blocks many leaders from living fruitfully at any stage of life.
Why constant activity may be the greatest enemy of spiritual depth – and how leaders can rediscover the practices that keep their souls alive.
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Your next Read: The Identity Shift
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