Originally posted on Medium
If you haven’t thought of it yet, having a mentor in your life is as essential as having a personal trainer for a lot of reasons that I will discuss further down in the post. I wanted to write about that topic for a long time now and I’m glad that I’m doing it right now. In these lines I will go through and explain what’s a mentor, why we need one in our lives and share who’s my mentor and what are the lessons I learned from her.
According to Wikipedia mentor is a wise and trusted counsellor or teacher. For me though Oprah Winfrey describes it with more accuracy, for Oprah mentor is someone who allows you to see the hope inside yourself. Everyone needs a mentor in their lives for a lot of reasons, especially when they’re starting out with their careers.
To inspire you to be the best you can be
Mentors are inspiring, at least this is how I see it. They want you to succeed and see you move forward. When you feel un motivated they can help you pick a the momentum, push forward & break down that god damn door that ’s holding you back. Who needs more than that? Be inspired and take action.
They provide information and knowledge
You’re 20 years old. You have a couple of experiences & you know things (But it turns out that you don’t know much, because you learn something every day) but nothing compared to the experiences and knowledge of your mentor. They failed many more times than you did, and learned from it , so they’re more experienced. With that said they can help you to not make the same mistakes as they did, provide you with valuable information about how to handle certain events under difficult circumstances.
Mentors are sounding boards so we can bounce ideas off them
I can’t even count how many questions I asked my mentor about a variety of things and from responses I got back I saw that there are no silly questions, those honest responses made my better and a person/engineer & as I thinker. So, after reading this paragraph the next time you want to ask a silly or not question to your mentor, go for it and do it! They’re here to help you.
Now that I wrote down some of the reasons that you may consider having a mentor in your life, you may ask, If I have a mentor? and if so who’s my mentor & most importantly what are the lessons I learned all these months, and believe me there a lot of them.
A couple of months back I didn’t thought that I will ever have a mentor (self-esteem is so damn low), who am I to have a mentor I said, and such questions always popped in my mind. Since joining Iris, Cat Noone was always a force of support to me, we’re talking about so many things un related to our work at Iris like, personal growth, self esteem, favourite books and so on, and yes we love reading books.
I asked her so many silly questions and her honest answers made me better as a person in many ways, she inspires me to be the best I can be. For these & so many other reasons I’m proud to consider her as my co worker & mentor. The last 9 months were the most amazing of my life. Through mentoring I learned a ton of things, and I mean it a ton.
Nothing is impossible if you believe in yourself
We already know that nothing’s impossible but we tend to forget it. Working with Cat & had/have a new challenge to tackle every day now the quote above is always on my head and helps me move forward.
Make bold moves
Be bolder about what you want. For example in a work interview be bold and say why you want this job. Bold moves are what create a lasting impression. Everything happens for a reason I already believe that but Cat made me to believe in it even more.
Work hard, Play hard
It’s really import to enjoy every moment in your life, you will spent a lot of time working in your life so you may need to find something you really love otherwise you will give up and feel unmotivated. Relaxation & have fun is as important as your work so take the time to enjoy life outside of work with a hobby e.g read a book, go for a walk, plan a dinner with your friends.
There is no such thing as silly questions
Be curious is one of the advantages that you always have in personal/work life. Be up to learn new things and don’t think that a silly question exists. Every question that you may have, it’s valuable to you & need a answer. So when you’re about to ask a question, don’t think if it’s silly or not, feel free and ask it to your mentor or someone else.
Pump up self esteem
True happiness and true power lie in understanding yourself, accepting yourself, having confidence in yourself.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Imposter syndrome hits me in a daily basis but I always try to overcome it by celebrating even the smallest wins. One of the lessons that I learned is that I need to pump up my self esteem, everyone’s worth it & special. Believe in you and break the wall that is holding you back.
I hope this post will make you to be more curious about different things, find a mentor and seek for advice on whatever profession/interest are you up to.
❤️ Agis