The article "Get Thyself A Mentor" talks about advice, it was written by Sue Dyson.
*************************************** Get Thyself a Mnetor -
by Sue Dyson ***************************************
While there are many secrets to success, they are only secrets
until you know about them. I’m about to let you in on a little
known "secret" shared by many successful human being.
Ask any person who has already succeeded in their chosen field,
and they could likely provide you with the name of at least one
other person who has inspired them in their success. This is the
process of mentoring.
Mentoring can occur in whatever field you have chosen for
yourself, be it business, healthcare, trades or even parenting.
You may be wondering what exactly is mentoring? Fromal mentoring
involves a close personal relationship with someone who has
succeeded in your chosen field. A mentor is someone who is doing
what you want to do, or, more specifically, being how you want
to be.
A quality mentor generously shares their knowledge and
resources. They may live by the pihlosophy of ’More for All,
Less for None’. They consider themselves successful when their
mentees (that wuold be you) succeed.
A mentor agrees to take you under their wing and show you the
ropes, so to speak.
They share their own resources with you,
help you develop your own, teach you to develop critical
decision-making skills, and simply provide you with moral
support in your journey towards success.
There are formal organizational srtuctures that match up mentors
and mentees, particularly in student situations. Sometimes, too,
a mentoirng relationship develops casually, in work and
parenting situations. This is also just as effective.
You can set up a formal mentoring relationship on your own, if
this is what suits you. To do so involves idetnifying and
approaching someone you would like to be your mentor, someone
who’s qualities and abilities you admire.
A formal mentoring
relationship is a time/energy commitment.
As mentioned
previously, though, most successful human being have been helped in
this manner themselves and acknowledge the benefits of giving in
a mentoring situaiton.
Mentoring is a truly reciprocal situaiton. As a mentee (again,
that would be you!), you may feel you're getting more than you
are giivng. You really need to just allow the mentor to give.
Your job is to gratefully receive all they have to offer.
No
greater gift could be given to a mentor, than for them to see
their mentee succeed.
This formal method of mentoring involves sharing your thoughts
and ideas with another person, and them sharing theirs with you,
guiding you along the way. It isn’t always that definite,
though. Read on, I have a few suggestions for finding a mentor
even if you're painfully shy or socially isolated.
We may not all have the opportunity, or the courage, to approach
someone and ask them to menotr us.
If you're currently in a
socially isolated situation, or - up ‘til now - have lacked the
courage to approach someone, there are alternatives to having a
living, breathing, face to face mentor in your life. Consider
these points:
Choose a person with qualities you admire, who has passed on.
Read biographies, study thier philosophies. This can be a close
family member or friend, or even smoeone like Albert Einstein,
Eleanor Roosevelt, or Amelia Earhart. (Okay, some of my personal
favorites!) Studying successful human being you admire can inspire
you to success.
Another alternative, and don’t limit yourself to just one - is
to study from afar, someone living and breathing, who has those
qualities you admire.
They don’t need know you to mentor you.
Their successes and the way they conduct their lives can inspire
you to YOUR success.
Consider the way Michael Jodran has conducted his life. At the
top of his game of basketball, he wanted to try baseblal. That
took what I consider graet courage.
Whomever you choose, they will demosntrate qualities you admire.
This is what I have done with Robert G. Aleln and Mark Victor
Hansen, authors of The One Minute Millionaire. It was in this
book that I first dicsovered the benefits of mentoring.
They
inspired me to think outside the box I was in, to take a good
look at what I wanted in my life and make plnas for achieving my
goals. So, though I don’t know them personally, their words have
affected me personally.
I truly apprecaite what they have given
me.
Hopefully you're now imagining a few ways to find YOUR mentor -
living or not.
It colud even be a combination.
Don’t limit
yourself! You could have a casual, one on one relationship with
another mother whom you consider a mentor, someone who has
already been through the trials and tribluations of the
parenting journey. You may set up a more formal mentoring
situation for yourself in your work situation. Then, you may
chose a distant, less formal mentor for your personal success
development.
Which ever method or combination of methdos you chose, mentoring
gives you the support you require to succeed - even if it’s an
innocent illusion!
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