As a Mentor, you become the closest thing that a person has to good parents, great teachers, amazing bosses, sibling, and friend all rolled into one.
Mentoring, when done right, changes your life in so many ways. But also, Mentoring, to be done right, demands a lot from you.
Over the past 5 years of active and structured Mentoring, my life has been completely overhauled. I have learnt so much about myself and about humanity than in all my years here on earth. My life is so much better and fuller. But also, I have learnt to be so much more humble while learning to take joy and pride in the result of the work by simply yielding myself to divinity in the service of humanity.
To be able to function effectively as mentors who help people around us to position themselves to become their best possible selves, there are a number of pivotal things we need to first learn how to be/do and then learn how to teach and guide mentees and proteges to be/do.
I have shared below a very simple list. You may think it’s obvious, but I am sure that if you think for a minute, you’ll see that many people have taken them so much for granted that they either do not practice many of them or they do not appreciate it when others do. But what is what is that the few people who actually still manifest them seem to be trampled upon more often than not.
If you can learn and guide people on even one of the following, then you are become the definition of goodness and an extension of God (or whatever name you choose to call Him).
- How to be kind and sensible.
- How to respect others (even when we don’t agree with them).
- How to be decent human beings.
- How to be law abiding citizens.
- How not to violate Human rights.
- Our core values.
- Discipline.
- Empathy.
- Love.
- Meaningful Connection.
- Open mindedness.
- Hard work.
- Respect for times, seasons and process.
- Structure and systems.
- How to say no to wrong and societal ills.
- How to change and grow.
- How to reduce our over dependence on religion (please note that I said “religion” not “faith” nor “God”)
- How to reduce bigotry of all kinds.
- How to manage our stress and not transfer our aggressions to others.
- How to be better parents, better children, better siblings, better spouses, better neighbours, better colleagues and associates…
- How to be better human beings.
- How to recycle waste…
- Spiritual intelligence (know God for yourself not according to whatever your religious leader feeds you)
- Emotional intelligence (know yourself and your emotion and don’t force your trauma on the rest of us)
- Cultural intelligence (know that not everyone sees the world through your filter, and give everyone you meet the space to express themselves in their language – you can learn their language and gently share yours, instead of forcing it down our throats like it’s law).
- Clarity – in Life’s purpose, career, business, relationships and legacy
This is the way life should be lived. This how we become wholesome individuals. This is how we uproot evil. And this is how we become the changes we want to see in the world.
Remember, the work starts with you. You learn. And then we should all collectively learn to teach our children, mentees, and proteges in the same going forward.
That is what Mentoring is about.
#TME.
