Brightening a Life or Two?

It occurred to me 15 years ago, when a na?ve intern knocked at my door, just like any other beginner he was struggling with confidence. Not that I was reluctant, but I was certainly skeptical of the decision to mentor him, given that his old records didn’t seem very promising. But placing my doubts aside, I decided to help him and that became one of the best and most fulfilling decisions of my life. Even before, I had helped people realize and reach their best potential, but no other experience was so intense as this particular one was. Unlike what people usually do, guilt-feeding has never been my style of work. I can’t be expected to do somebody else’s work but I can always assist and show the right direction, if need be. To be able to guide someone in the right direction, it’s important to live with certain rules.

The Three Golden Rules of Mentorship:

1.     Imagine : You must imagine. The whole idea behind lifting somebody in their respective career, is to co-create a condition of what success looks like, they must visualise it before working towards it. Something you can’t visualise happening, will most likely never happen

2. Work : In this particular case, I had to help this intern, emerge from his self-doubt and shattering belief. I remember being that intern once and that thought made me help him. After creating the right conditions, you must work and work ruthlessly. There were mornings when I had to listen to him, for the undertones of hidden strengths and weaknesses and there were afternoons when I had to be brutal in my speech to push him towards his aims

3. Create . Now your work must manifest into creation and you must help your mentee create the future, once imagined. Finally, he took a flight in his career and I couldn’t be happier and more contented than I was on that day.

Other than having my own professional life, that keeps me on the edge all the time with loaded responsibilities, I also have a wholesome life to live and many more people to help. Being in thirty shoes at a time becomes very challenging, but over so many years of diligence I’ve learnt to do things the right way.

Reading “Becoming a Mountain “ by Stephen Alter, I came up with six elements that keep me going in my voyage of discovering myself, I feel old enough to preach them these days ??

1. Always aim at value addition in mind, body and soul. No action must fall outside these three spheres, anything that isn’t enriching your mind, your body or your soul, is simply not worth doing.

2. Sleeping and eating well, is religion to any efficient worker. You cannot expect to deliver brilliance if you don’t put an effort in making your shell fit and energetic. Two golden rules of healthy and efficient living are- good sleep and healthy eating in relation to the degree of your exertion

3. Taking frivolous responsibilities is not worth it, always aim and work for what is important. You must be able to distinguish and work on things that hold relevance.

4. Focus is the key for efficiency, discipline your mind in focus. Meditation becomes important thus, human mind is capable of wondering in many directions. Meditating is the key that will help you align your focus in the intended direction.

5. Love what you do and do what you love. It’s important to do things that you love, doing anything half-heartedly never reaps good results.

6. Believe in yourself, nothing else matters. You will always come across people with varying notions, they might as well tell you that you’re not good enough. With due diligence and belief, you can be anything and everything you want to be. So just believe in yourself and nothing otherwise.

Helping others realise their capabilities is a part of the cycle of personal development, I learnt that at an early stage of my professional life. Now when it’s been more than two decades, I foster and promote this ideology, till date. There’s personal growth and satisfaction in adding value to some other’s existence. There’s no better way to use your experience and expertise than restoring belief in somebody’s heart and mind, something that I strife for.

The grace you can get, is the grace you can imagine.

~Toni Morrison~

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