One of the best ways to grow in a sector of life is to find someone (a mentor) who has preceded you and has successfully achieved the same goal that you set yourself.
The mentor can be your reference, your little bar, the one who provides you with valuable advice and encourages you.
A mentor is someone you value the way you live or work and who you think can be a good guide for you.
You will never hear the word “follow me” from a good leader.
This means that it is difficult to improve if you do not follow anyone.
Too many people use this approach and fail miserably.
To grow you have to learn from the best people of you. If you only follow yourself, you are surely on the road to frustration and a flattening of your personal growth.
You have to be humble enough to ask for help, listen and learn from your mentors. Knowing how to choose a mentor is meeting the right support to make your changes, reduce your learning curve, open your mind to different ideas and possibilities, identify new opportunities and get advice on improving your potential with OKRS – Objectives and key results.
Choosing a mentor is not a difficult thing
Most people who decide to grow find their first mentors in the pages of books.
Daily reading is probably the number one characteristic of successful people. The average person considers reading useless because it is too “busy” to have time to read.
He also thinks, “Did I not read enough in their formal education? Why do I need to read other uninteresting books?”
Unfortunately, people are never taught strategies and skills in personal growth that make a difference in their lives.
I encourage you not to think of a mentor in traditional terms, such as meeting a natural person or one at the highest level: this would clearly be the top.
A mentor can also have it through a book, a course, a blog, a friend or a person you trust, but who can help you point out a path that he has reached before you.
Choosing a mentor is not necessarily a difficult task, but it should not be something haphazard.
When the need for a guide arises
The growth process with the help of a mentor usually begins with self-awareness.
You realize that you need help, or guidance, and that following yourself is not a viable option for effective personal growth.
When you come to that awareness, one of two things can happen:
- Your pride swells and does not lead you to seek the opinion of another
- The other reaction to awareness is to humiliate yourself and ask for help.
The people you follow, the models you emulate, your mentors, help you shape yourself.
If you spend your time with people who belittle you or underestimate you, then every step you try to take will be difficult.
But if you find wise leaders, good behavior patterns and positive friends, you will find that they accelerate your journey.
Remember, the people you habitually spend time with are 95% of the reason you will have success or failure in life.
They’ll get you up to become better or cut you to pieces to stay in the middle of mediocrity.
I think this is the number one factor you need to focus on when talking about “external” factors to yourself.
But even here, like the internal factors, the choice is yours.
