A Conversation with a Wise Friend

5 keys you need to know

Author

Tommy Halkyard
January 05, 2024

Dear Younger Me,

You recently had a conversation with a wise friend. It was related to my last letter on a new way to think about goal setting.

He is also passionate about goal setting. After some good discussion on that topic, the conversation went a step further from what I recently laid out for you.

My suggestion was to align specific goals with specific desires to help keep you on the path to achieve them. Our friend took it a step further:

Align your goals with your desires with a personal mission.

How? He laid out the following 5 steps:

  1. Be bold. It is easy to encourage others to be bold. It is a whole different ball game to be bold yourself. Never regret taking a risk to stand out and be bold, especially early on. Likely, it will lead to greater achievement.

  2. Be flexible.  You may end up achieving your goals in a different way than you originally intended. Unless you are hyper-specific about the path in which you will achieve your goals, be open and ready for a different path to the final outcome. Although it may not be what you expect, you will more than likely far exceed your original goal.

  3. Be intentional. How often in life do you say something that you never end up doing? It happens to everyone, but I encourage you to be different. Uphold whatever you intend to do. Additionally, be a great friend, colleague, sibling, spouse etc. and hold those you love accountable to do what they set out to do as well.

  4. Be gracious. Grace is receiving what we do not deserve.  The world needs more grace. Others may not have earned everything from you, but at the very least you can extend them grace. Even more, give grace to yourself. You (and the world) will thank you for it.

  5. Be patient. There is one certain reality: we never truly know what the future holds. Because this is the only reality that we can accept, expect a different timeline and commit to “being in it” for the long haul.

Wise words from a wise friend. Take them and internalize them, younger me. I am certain you will be better off if you do.

Best,

Older You