Mentors have probably been around as long as humanity. We learn from each other. There are a variety of types, we call them:
- Teachers
- Trainers
- Coaches
- Counselors
- Gurus
Anything that I’ve wanted to do well at, I’ve had a mentor for. Some of the best and most wonderful relationships in life are with our mentors.
A mentor can be free of charge, and some can cost thousands of dollars to join a, “mastermind session.” with like-minded individuals.
A good mentor should:
- Show you how to use new useful ways to look at how you are doing in your given field, sport, etc.
- Make you accountable for what you do and do not get done.
- Be easy to contact, not just for once a month “paid sessions”. When you need a mentor, you need a mentor… it’s sometimes in the worst moments, flat on our faces, we learn the most.
- Have an entire group of people that you can count on and communicate with with ease, all in various stages of development.
- Has their own mentor!
Every mentor has a mentor! Someone that took them under their wing to show them the ropes, someone that they can ask questions of if they get stuck. We are all human, and we are ALL learning all the time. If we stop, the flow stops as well.
There are as many different types of mentors as there are people. I’ve had all different types, the one that has yelled at me at the top of his lungs till I cried, to the type that’s too afraid to rip me a new one. Both have their value. As a mentor myself, I’m between the two, I’ll always tell someone directly to step this or that up, and what is needed, but I’ll also explain why. I also have no problem kicking someone to the curb if they blatantly are found cheating their way through. It doesn’t hurt me, it hurts them to cheat, and it’s bad mojo, so I stop it ASAP.
I’ve heard it said over and over again, that when the student is ready, the teacher appears,on several instances, my best mentors were by accident. They were completely by Divine guidance that they came into my life. They certainly appeared! One particular mentor, I pestered until he took me on. Tenacious child that I was, he probably figured that had he not let me apprentice, I would just keep bugging him.
How you find your mentor is much less important than how you utilize them. Ask questions, take what they say and simply do it. It’s in doing what teach that the gold is found, if the idea doesn’t work, then ask more questions!
There is nothing more beautiful in this world than seeing others grow, and in my case to new awareness that they otherwise would not have known were available to them. To hear a student connect to a loved-one of another and prove they are existing happily on the other-side and giving messages of love and hope, simply bring me to tears. To know that a long line of mentors stand behind that person, all of us connected through this one talented individual and connecting to all others and the Divine…breathtaking.
