Big Goals for 2017? Then You Need One of These.
“Every great achiever is inspired by a great mentor” – Lailah Gifty Akita
Ask any successful person and they will tell you they didn’t reach their goals alone. Having a mentor is absolutely crucial in your success. The more I have consulted my mentors throughout my life, the better my life has become. It’s that simple. The benefits of mentorship are endless, but this blog will highlight the top 5 reasons you should partner up with a mentor.
[1] Learn from their mistakes: What’s one way to not make mistakes? Learn to avoid them from your mentor. If you‘re just getting started in whatever endeavor you’ve chosen, then you are probably spending endless amounts of hours educating yourself, researching and learning as much as possible. All of that is great but there is no substitute for real life experience. Some things cannot be learned in a book or a class room. The only way to learn some things is to experience them and embrace the mistakes. Mistakes are inevitable, no matter how much you may have set yourself up for success. When you have a mentor you don’t have to go through any experience for the first time. You have someone right by your side who has gone through all of the journeys that you are about to embark on. What a great security blanket to have.
[2] Identify your strengths: Maximizing your strengths is vital to success. You need to figure out what you are good at, nourish that skill and delegate the rest. Most people are in the workforce for years and still don’t know what their strengths are. It can be difficult to look within yourself and truly identify what you are good at. Sometimes you need a little perspective. That’s what a mentor does for you. They help you figure out what your greatest skills are and enhance them.
[3] Why go at it alone? Having a mentor is like having a trainer spot you in the gym. You always feel safe because you know someone with experience is watching over you. You can leverage all of their experience by asking questions and learning about their past successes and failures too. You can learn what fuels them and what practices/routines they followed in order to become successful. They are also great listeners. You may not have someone in your life that you can share your goals and dreams with that will understand your passion. A mentor is someone you can share ideas and your own experiences with. Most mentors turn into lifelong friendships.
[4] Peek behind the curtain: A mentor can directly involve you in their business operations. What better way to learn than sit in on actual meetings/conference calls and see how the experts operate? They can also introduce you to their networks and connect you to future business partners and associates. That right there is invaluable.
[5] Focus and Accountability: If you want to be successful you better be focused and accountable. When you are on your own (in the beginning), it can be hard to be productively focused. Not because you aren’t spending the necessary time but because a new venture can feel overwhelming. There a so many things that need to be done that it can be difficult to identify what is the most important ways to spend your time. A mentor helps you focus on priorities and attack your goals logically so that you spend your time being productive not just busy. A mentor will also hold you accountable to your goals and make sure you are being relentlessly consistent.
So pick a good mentor, ask lots of questions and TAKE ACTION based on their feedback. Maybe one day you’ll be on the other side of the table.
