In my last article I announced that Christine Dionese and I have entered into a peer-to-peer mentorship and, starting this month, will begin mentoring each other through a monthly Q&A column on her blog and mine.
Before we “get columing”, we are sharing our current perspectives on mentorship as we enter into our partnership (to simplify ourselves — I’m a skeptic, she’s a believer). Here’s mine! You can read Christine’s here.
Mentors are:
not a topic, or role, that feel very familiar with. For a long time I felt that the best thing was to do everything myself and to rely on no one. But I’m growing to see the value of mentors now, as I grow to see the value of external support, accept my need for it, and I allow myself to mourn the support I didn’t get.
Sometimes I really suck at communicating… yet I’m also a great communicator. It’s what I do naturally. But sometimes, I’m down right terrible with it.
My coach Teya Sparks reminds me that I need to be willing to be both extremes. That as a human being, it is only natural.
As a perfectionist, it seems insane. How can I make a career around communication and also be a bad communicator? I must be the best communicator ever. always. period.
But I am not. Sometimes I suck.
Not a Great Communication Moment
Like last week, when I wrote about discovering my designer,
Donald Trump in Trump:101 asked, “why compete with others when you can beat yourself?”
Perfection.
What we wish we were. What we think we should be.
It used to be about what They think, but it’s not anymore. It’s about Us.
It’s about not being good enough for our Self. We don’t fit with our own image of perfection.
We can not forgive ourselves for not being what we believe we should be.
[tweetmeme] Our past, the present, and our unwritten future, and what we think of them, they tend to haunt us now and again.
If your ghosts happen to visit this holiday season (or any time), why not invite them in and explore with them. They have much to teach us when we are open to acknowledging them and adapting to their presence.
Learning From the Past: The Ghost of Who You Were
Whether you’re a fan of change or not, you aren’t the same person as you were. You’ve changed. You’ve grown.
Your visions of the past can be one of your chief assets. They can tell you about Who You Are now, what you want, what you don’t want, what you like and what you don’t.
Who You Were can show you that the good stuff and the bad stuff have helped to shaped you equally.
How you remember Who You Were is yours to choose. It can be your chain, it can be your springboard, it can be whatever you desire.
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The Talk
It’s not always useful.
Be careful. Protect yourself. And your work.
You know what’s best. ‘Should’ is not a reason to do anything.
Advice isn’t always helpful. Premature questions and assumptions are not your friends.
Be Discerning
Sharing something special with someone who is not discerning, or when you aren’t yet ready, is a risky move.
Talk takes energy. And if we aren’t careful, talk dilutes our feelings, and our passions.
[tweetmeme] If we look at -preneurship as a term used to describe our personal brand, what form of -preneurship would best communicate your value?
Entre-preneurship: taking charge of your own business
Literally, the word means: “begin to take charge” but is often defined as the practice of starting a new business. Entrepreneurial behaviour describes investing time and money in the creation and development of a new enterprise.
Intra-preneurship: taking charge within a business
Management Consultant Gifford Pinchot coined the term while exploring the role of spiritual values in business. He later wrote a popular book called Intrapreneuring and the term is now used to describe and encourage entrepreneurial attitudes within companies.
[tweetmeme] I’ve got a bit of a temper. You could call me fiery, if you will. Certain things just boil my blood.
I take pleasure from expressing my displeasure.
Anger. The root of all protest movements and all processes of change.
I love my anger, when it’s properly channeled. It drives me to make things different. My anger tells me that THIS is something that I am not okay with. It is a boundary-setter. It tells me that “I can see/feel/know that someone or something has wronged me.” It tells me something needs to change.
It is one of the best drivers I know. If I didn’t think it was wrong, I would never be driven to refine anything.
If I hadn’t been pissed off at the corporate world, and the way business ’should be’, and being told I ’should’ accept it, this whole thing never would never be.
