19-Year-Old Wisdom

Tomorrow is a big day. My son Dave is moving out of home, to share a house with three of his mates.

Yesterday I asked him what he'd been up to, he replied that he had given one of his house-mates, Davy, a goal setting session.

Once I had picked my jaw up off the floor, I asked how that came about.

He said he took his mate to a cafe and asked him what his goals were, when his mate replied that he didn't have any, and this is where the wisdom came out...

"You can't achieve your goals if you don't make them."

Simple. Powerful. Genius.

I asked how he managed to convince his mate to have a goal setting session, he said that he didn't give him a choice, "We're doing this." I think we could all use a friend like that.

They started off setting goals in the area that Davy was most interested in, which was making music, then moved on to financial goals, which my son (as his new landlord) is interested in.

It didn't just stop there. They took immediate massive ACTION and went to the bank to open an account for Davy.

I couldn't have been prouder at that moment, until I asked where he learnt how to do that. "From you, Dad".

Wow. Sometimes you think that all you do for your kids, or for people in general, is all for naught, but then something like that makes it all worthwhile.

And guess what he wanted as a moving-in present? A whiteboard, to keep track of his goals progress. That's my boy!

It reminded me of a moment a couple of years ago. He had been to a motivational seminar with his school, Of course I asked what the speaker was speaking on. "Same shit you always talk about, Dad." was the answer. I wasn't too impressed at that moment, but he said that one thing really shocked him. The speaker asked everyone to raise their hands if they felt they weren't good enough. He looked around and realised that everyone's hand was raised, except for his. I asked him why he thought that was, he said "I'm not sure, but I remember that every night when I was little, you put me to bed and told me that I could do anything I wanted to do, that there was no such word as can't, and that you loved me very much".

It matters what you say.
It matters what you do.
It matters that you set a good example.

For your family, your friends, your clients and community, and most importantly, for yourself.

To your success,
Trevor Long
(Proud Daddy)