We Celebrate Women! We Take Control! We Believe in ourselves! We find a Mentor!
As we celebrate women this month, I think of so many empowering ones I know! I wonder if they ever felt like me at one point in their lives, fulfilled and thinking “whats’s next?”. I knew then the importance to reach out to my mentors for advice to get to the next level.
What about you? Are you in a place where you feel you’ve accomplished a lot, you’ve learned so many lessons in life, you’ve shared your life experiences and inspired others, you’ve had a successful career, you have a beautiful family? So, why even think about having a Life Mentor? At one point in my life I didn’t realize the importance of it, nor did I know the difference between a coach and a life mentor. I always had this impression that only “certain people” needed either one.
Through my own life journey, I’ve come to realize we all need a coach and life mentors. When I met my coaching mentor from the John Maxwell team, Christopher Simpson, he helped me understand that a good coach helps people, as it’s anticipated, but a great coach guides people through a series of questions. A great coach helps you uncover, discover, resolve and know what to do to move forward in any situation you may be in. You come up with your own answers. It’s the opposite to what some people believe a coach is.
A mentor is someone you’ve come to admire for his/her expertise, reputation, credibility and a lifetime of accomplishments. Someone whom you trust and are willing to follow his/her advice.
I love my sister Clara’s definition of a mentor “A mentor can provide support, guidance and advice not only in someone’s professional life but personal as well. Having a mentor is especially important during a significant or major change in one’s life”.
Mark Cole is the CEO of all 7 of The John Maxwell Companies and I along with other members of the John Maxwell team, get to learn directly from his wise teachings. He has been a key factor of my growth as a person and I appreciate his suggestions. We were at an Executive Director welcoming gathering at the March 2019 International Maxwell Certification and I caught him by surprise with my question “What would you say to your own daughter that she will treasure forever as we celebrate women this month?”.
I gathered 3 things we need to do from his answer:
- Take control of your life. “whether you have a father figure in your life or not”. He used me as an example because he knows my story and remembered my dad left when I was 5 months old.
- Believe you can make a difference in your own life. Bet on yourself and then others will as well!
- Find a mentor whose pushed through adversity. There will be a point when you will in turn help others grow and become better, but first, let your mentors pour into you!!!
The most rewarding thing that could possibly happen to someone is to be trusted enough to be asked to be a mentor. After you experience having mentors and growing as a person, inevitably YOU BECOME ONE! It’s a privilege to think that you can inspire someone to persevere during difficult situations, to find joy when nothing seems right and to spread love when forgiveness is needed. In my journey, and as I speak to people from all walks of life, I find that forgiveness is one of the hardest things for people to accept. People live their lives with resentments, hurts, rejection and many negative feelings that prevent them from being able to forgive, trust and love people.
In the last few years, I’ve found myself reaching out to mentors and it’s been a life changing experience. A mentor can add value into your life if only you allow him/her to pour into yours.
Usually, when someone becomes a mentor, it’s during a time in which this person has reached a high level of expertise and fulfillment in his/her life and has limited time due to professional and or personal responsibilities. Only his/her passion to add value to others can drive great mentors to take the time and effort needed to help those in need of their advice and expertise.
In summary, LOVE is the solution! One of my mentors says that love could be described in the most common way as we find it in 1st. Corinthians Chapter 13: “love is patience, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs…” this was certainly one of my mom’s favorite verses. By the way, my mom was a great mentor without even realizing it. She fits the description my mentor prefers to use when describing love: “LOVE IS THE ABILITY AND THE CAPABILITY TO OVERLOOK SOMEONE’S HUMANITY”. My mom often overlooked people’s “humanity” to forgive, love and disciple them. I’m blessed to be part of her legacy. She taught me that I need to love people no matter what and treat others the way I want to be treated. I often fail at making her as proud as she deserves and I pray that those, I fail to, can in turn overlook my “humanity” when needed…
Let’s grow together, help each other, mentor others, do it in love and experience living a life of significance.