Finding Motivation to Start the Day

3 Things A Mentor Can Do To Help You Succeed

It’s very common to hear praise for “self-made” men and women. However, very few people are truly self-made. Many of the most successful people that you know of, including such leaders as Bill Clinton, Martin Luther King Jr., and Ghandi, credit their successes to mentors who guided, advised, and inspired them at some point in their lives. If you’re looking for a way to improve your life and maximize your successes, a mentor may also be the answer for you. What can a mentor do to help you make changes and achieve your goals in life? Take a look at some of the tactics mentors can use to help you succeed.

Share Experiences

By definition, a mentor is someone who has been where you are in the past and has already arrived at the place that you want to be. That can mean several things, depending on your motivation for seeking out a mentor. A mentor could be someone who has survived financial hardship and is now financially self-sufficient. It could be someone who worked their way up in the field that you intend to enter. It could also be someone who has overcome a trauma or disability that you’re working to overcome.

No matter what you’re intending to achieve, there is something to be gained from listening to the story of someone else who has already achieved the same thing, or who has been at a place in their life that’s similar to the place you’re at now. One of the most important things that a mentor can do for you is to simply share their experience with you. You may be able to avoid setbacks and roadblocks that they experienced, because you’ll know ahead of time what you might be dealing with.

Set Goals

Another thing that a mentor can do for you is help you set goals that will help you reach your desired outcome. Many people have difficulty setting helpful goals, because they don’t know which small goals will bring them to their ultimate goal.

For example, what if it was your dream to complete a cross country marathon, but you had never run any long distance before? What if you were actually very out of shape, and you got tired even walking short distances? Would you have any idea where to start to get yourself ready for a marathon? Probably not. But if you had a marathon runner mentor who had once been in the same position, your mentor would be able to suggest small goals — perhaps starting with walking around the block every day, or running up and down the stairs – that would eventually lead to you being able to complete your marathon. A mentor who had once been where you were would know which goals were realistic to start with.

Provide Resources

Mentors are just people like you – they don’t know everything. A good mentor will recognize that they may not always have all of the answers for you, and will instead try to steer you in the direction of resources that would also help you. In the marathon runner example, a mentor might suggest that you see a doctor to rule out any physical ailments that might be preventing you from being able to run a marathon.

Your mentor will also help you find your own resources by helping you identify what kind of help or advice you need. When you fall short of your goals, a mentor will help you see it as a learning opportunity and look for the reasons why you fell short. Often, when you identify the reason why, you’ll know what sort of resource you’ll need to fix it. For example, if you have trouble passing tests, your mentor may be able to help you pinpoint whether your difficulty comes from being unprepared for the test or from your anxiety about the test. Then you’ll know whether you need to study harder or seek out help to control your anxiety.

If you think that a mentor can help you to achieve your goals in life, you’re probably wondering where to find one. While it’s certainly possible to find a mentor quite by accident, why not make your own luck and look into an organization that specializes in pairing people like you with mentors that can help them succeed? Proactively going in search of a mentor for more info could be the key to achieving your dreams and changing your life.

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