Over your life you will no doubt have several Coaches or Mentors. Because these are the people that will help shape your life it is important that you choose Yours wisely. You will commit a great deal of time and attention to these people and ideally they too will be just as focused on you.
To select the best mentor for you, you must first start with the end in mind. What are your life’s Goals for your career and your personal life?
If you are just starting out on a health and fitness regime you might choose a friend who knows a lot about exercise or go to a gym where their are friendly personal trainers who will show you the foundations and help you get started. If you are just starting a family and you are faced with the adjustments that come with that phase of life, you may select a mentor who is reaching the other end of this challenging and rewarding journey. And if you are a coach starting out in business, it would be enviable to select a mentor who has already taken the action and put the step by step processes into place to make it happen for them, so they can make it happen for you.
Across the board your mentors should be people whose experiences you can model to support you reaching your goals in the most important areas of your life.
Selecting a mentor is more than just selecting someone you like, or feel comfortable with. Your mentors must be able to show you a track record of success. I am continually amazed by the number of people who choose mentors based on superficial success. This is important to remember because even ‘experts’ can make mistakes of judgment when choosing a mentor. Next time you visit Borders spend some time looking at the best-sellers from four or five years ago, you may find some of the ‘gurus’ are now out of business? I don’t say this to trouble you, only to impress upon you the importance of taking great care in selecting a coach whose success will stand the test of time.
On top of selecting a mentor based on their ability to achieve goals similar to your own, make sure your mentors have also overcome similar obstacles to what you are currently facing. Ideally your mentor will represent who you want to BE and what you want to DO.
If you can choose a mentor who you can spend time with sharing ideas or with whom you enjoy having conversations with and sharing ideas then it makes the whole experience more enjoyable and can also hold you more accountable to help you take even more action.
Of course, you can have admired historical personages, authors, educators or artists as role models. If you discover someone with whom you feel a special affinity, make an effort to obtain everything that person has written or said. Really become a student of the person’s work and life. Don’t just admire him or her, genuinely learn from him or her.
One of the most interesting aspects of selecting a mentor is the fact that one can rarely separate people’s tangible achievements from the qualities of their character. More than their bank accounts or their real estate holdings, role models prove by the conduct of their lives that they’re worth emulating.
Here’s To Finding Sensational Mentors
Kim Rowe
National Student Liaison
