Should you get a coach or mentor? You probably don’t realize it, but we’re always surrounded by mentors. If you take anything you’ve ever done seriously, you can probably identify a few older and more experienced people who helped you along while you were learning, even if you didn’t learn with them formally.
A mentor is someone who transfers their knowledge and experience to you and guides you through the process. If you’re learning IM (or anything else for that matter), having a mentor really speeds up your learning curve and offers lots of benefits.
Insight from an Insider
Your mentor is an insider in their industry. It really helps to have their expert insight. Since they know the industry front and back through long years in it, they’ve seen all the ups and downs and they can help you navigate them. They can help you formulate your future. They’ll know which challenges you’ll face as you get deeper into it.
Personal Career Advice
Where a mentor helps you most is with their personal career advice that’s especially for you and your unique situation. They’ve been where you are before and their knowledge goes well beyond anything you can read in a book. Your mentor can empathize with you and help you decide whether or not you’re on the right path.
Help out of a Rut
When you experience one of the many bumps in the road that you’ll face, your mentor can help you get out of it. You can go to them with your problems and they can tell you what your options are. They can offer specific ways for you to get out of your troubles based on their experience.
Working on Your Weaknesses
Your mentor knows you better than you know yourself. They know your natural strengths and, more importantly, your weaknesses. When you work with a mentor, you get constant diagnostic checks and troubleshooting. They can reveal these weak points to you and give you the challenges you need to overcome them.
A Safe Way to Learn
Your mentor provides you with a safe way to learn your chosen field. Working with them, your stupid mistakes can be not quite so stupid (or costly). In a way, they offer a cushion of safety that protects you from the outside world. They give you the support and encouragement that you need to keep growing. You can also vent and unload with them and they’ll understand what you’re going through.
The Big Picture
Your mentor can see the big picture while you often can’t see the forest for the trees. That’s because you’re in the middle of it, fighting your way through. Your mentor sees your situation from all angles and can show it to you.
When you work with a mentor, there’s something very important that you need to understand. It’s not their job to do the work for you and they’re not responsible for your results. They just provide guidance, but you have to take and use it. What every mentor wants to see more than anything else is the progress and growth of their students.
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