Mentor… Are you there yet?

When you hear the word mentor what is the first thing that goes into your mind? a whiteboard and colored pens? diagrams all over the board? exams and marks? Well, this is what you’ll imagine if the word mentor is related to someone who teaches others in a systematic predefined way i.e teacher, professor, researcher… etc.

It’s hard to define your self or be defined as a mentor, because a mentor is someone who affects others life in every aspect, from my little experience I think anyone can be a mentor if he had some characteristics that can tell whether he have the ability to mentor others or not, some of these are:

-       You are a mentor if you already had a mentor or still have one, what ever the level you reached in your life and career path, you’ll always need someone who can advice you, give you tips, and open your eyes on things that you don’t see, someone who acts like your conscious and inner mind.

-       You get to be a mentor if you’re certain deep inside that you have the ability of teaching your mentee something new, enrich their knowledge, expertise, and advice them.

-       You only get to be a mentor if you know and certain that you can dedicate time to your mentee, not just to be a mentor by name, you have to set, talk, discuss, draw plans or even just chitchat with your mentee.

-       You get to be a mentor if you’re a good listener.

-       You get to be a mentor if you’re a dreamer who doesn’t believe in boundaries.

-       You get to be a mentor if you feel you learned enough that qualifies you to be so.

-       You get to be mentor if you have the passion in mentoring others and help them developing their life and career path and even their personal life.

Don’t do it just because you want to be a mentor, in this case you’ll be affecting someone else’s life in a negative way.

Always know who is your mentee and pick them carefully make sure to choose those whom you really can help and open new doors to, don’t be someone’s mentor just because he asked you to, be someone’s mentor if you see in him/her something similar to you in your youth days, those are whom you really can help.

Be the last piece in a puzzle rather being the lost piece.

And as Romain Rolland Says, “If a man is to shed the light of the sun upon other men, he must first of all have it within himself”