Halloween and Mentoring Epilogue

#MentoringSeries #WaterForThought

As we packed up the props, I reflected on the whole experience and how it beautifully flows and connects with Mentoring and Life in general through a few simple lines:

#1 Don’t give up at the first hard bump on the road. It’s ok be discouraged for a second or two, especially when life gives you garlic when you were hoping for candy but, do keep faith and do stand up after you’ve found yourself falling. Success stories are not written with hesitations at every step we take but rather with determination and grit. And then, the best thing that comes with falling, is that once we know we could stand up at the next challenge we will be more confident, and we will overcome it.  Been there, done that!

#2 Follow the smallest beam of light. Journeys are long and from, time to time, someone switches off the light. We get lost on the way or we have to travel the deep valleys of loss, treason and sadness. And that is part of life as we know it and it’s ok to feel down and not know where to go next but what is often forgotten when we are there is: there is always a way out. Just follow the light, keep on searching, breathe, pray, ask for help and never, never give up on hoping. Life will send us a “treasure at the end of the tunnel” sometimes when we least expect it!

#3 Stay curious. The advice received in mentoring or from friends or colleagues can, many times, be similar to what we think but other times might not be exactly what we would have had in prospect. We need to remember that, if we enter a growth space expecting mentors to tell us something we already knew, then, we’ve lost the game before even kicking the first ball. Therefore, being enthusiastic and keeping a “child’s” curiosity in the process, allowing conversations to flow and different ideas to be shared and emerge is vital. At the end of the day, what are we there for?

#4 In order to gain you first need to lose. Transformation never comes free of charge. It is always at a cost. It’s the cost of giving up something we have in hand for something that our heart is longing for. Our little (s)heroes need to give up their recent gain to access another treasure. In life or career this might not be so straight forward as with the bread in our story. But we always, always need to let go of something for something else, new, better to come. And, faced with a decision one must ask herself or himself: am I ready to pay the price?

#5 The Road belongs to the Driver. For Mentees, remember it’s your life and your choice. You are the driver and it’s you who decides what’s best at any point in time. Besides that, we all need great guides and if you’ve found yours, motivate them, ask of them, keep them close. For Mentors, remember to act from a place of humbleness and acceptance. You may give a great advice but it’s possible the person you are guiding might not feel ready yet and she/he may take a different route. This. Hmmm...No, That! Right? Wrong? Well, one will never know…

That evening the best moment was yet to come. While us, adults, were exhausted from the adventure and were enjoying a good chat over a glass of a beautiful wine specific to South West Romania called “Zaibar”, the kids were onto something. They were hiding into the playroom and planning the next adventure and, I tell you, they had so many wonderful ideas!

Epilogue: If life may hold so many unknowns in its pocket and you can only connect the dots looking back, in Mentoring it's a lot simpler. You can look into the future because know you’ve been sowing the right seeds when Mentees left your field inspired to pay it forward.

Part 3

——————

Grateful to be an eclectic and trustworthy sounding board for #SeniorExecutives and to be #CoachingMentors.

If you, or your organisation, are looking for an  #ExecutiveCoach, or a professional to #Coach your selected  #Mentor pool and/or help you design and facilitate a #LeadershipMeeting or an internal  #MentoringProgram, drop me a line.

I use the Hashtag #WaterForThought for some of my posts. Do follow it!