Halfway There? Here's How to Finish Strong
How to Finish 2025 Strong (Without Burning Out)
I ran track & field in college, where I competed in the 800-meter race. That race is a combination of speed, toughness, and doing your best to hang in there until the end. Too short to pace, too long to sprint. It’s brutal. The key to running a great half-mile is found in a racing strategy called the negative split.
A negative split is completing the second half of a race faster than the first half. It's a pacing strategy where a runner starts slower and gradually increases their pace, aiming to finish stronger than they started.
I never thought to apply this mindset outside the track until Jon Acuff reminded me. Honestly, it made me a little mad at myself for not thinking of it first, given my experiences with it. Acuff takes it a step further and explains that whatever you’ve done in the first half of the year—times you’ve exercised, worked on a hobby, or written your book—you should double it.
On July 2nd, we will be halfway through 2025. That’s wild—where has the year gone?!?! It’s also a chance for you to work on negatively splitting the year. Whether you’ve crushed your goals or stumbled, here’s your chance to get back in the race.
Let’s talk about a few tips for making the most of the 2nd half of 2025.
There are a couple of ways to frame this. Like Acuff, you can look at what you’ve done and double it, or you can look back and think, these are the lessons the first half of the year has taught me, and determine what opportunities there are in the next six months. Past success is a good indicator of future success, in my opinion.
I believe in easy goals - no superhero efforts. Set your goals small and make them doable. You can always add more, but it’s tough when you keep missing big goals. Not every day is going to be great. “The secret to greatness is finding a system that works for you and sticking with it for the long haul,” as author Brad Stulberg says. “Some days will be great. Some days will be not-so-great. Commit to your system. Make adjustments as you go.”
Check your calendar—it knows your season better than your ambition does. If you’ve got littles at home, like I do, the summer isn’t the best time to start a new project. That’s an excellent way for me to make everyone in my house, including myself, angry and frustrated. A calendar can tell you a lot about what season you are in. You’d be wise to see what’s coming up and plan accordingly.
You control two things: your attitude and your actions. If you need to adjust your attitude because you're disappointed with where you are with your writing goals, now is the time to do that. Use the negative split, like New Year’s Day. This is our secret holiday, right? Let’s make new goals, reset, and give yourself another chance.
If you’ve stumbled a bit, I remind myself of James Clear's "never miss twice" rule from his book Atomic Habits. In it, he advises against allowing a missed day of a habit to turn into a pattern. It emphasizes that one missed day is an accident, but missing two days in a row starts a new, potentially detrimental, habit. Here’s the thing: even if you’ve missed two days or thirty, writing goals don’t expire; there’s no time limit. Start today, start small.
Quick Wins for Your Second-Half Reset:
- Set small, doable goals
- Use your calendar to know your season
- Focus on attitude and action
- Remember: “Never miss twice”
I wish I could send each of you some negative split swag—who doesn’t love a coffee mug, right? But I hope you’ll join me in celebrating this holiday with fresh goals and a new perspective. No matter where you are in the race, you’ve still got a chance to win, just focus on your negative split.
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