Easing Yourself In

Finding Mentors 101: Connect with People Who Inspire You Easing Yourself In, Mindset and Habits August 30, 2024 byCharlotte Ever thought mentorship was just for climbing the career ladder? Think again. Just as we seek mentorship in our professional lives, it’s equally essential to find mentors when exploring new hobbies, traveling to new destinations, or working on any kind of personal development. I’ve had over a dozen mentors supporting me, and I always make it a point to seek out more experienced individuals who can offer me new perspectives. That’s why I’m always surprised when people tell me they’ve never had a mentor. According to an article by Harvard Business Review, 76% of people sees high value in mentors, while only 37% of them have a mentor. seeMore often than not, they misunderstand what mentorship really is. Mentorship is not a one-way relationship where an all-knowing teacher imparts wisdom to a clueless student. It’s an exchange—a relationship where both the mentor and mentee contribute, learn, and grow. As mentees, our job is to push ourselves, learn, and bring value to the table, while the mentor provides guidance, encouragement, and support. In this blog, I will make sure I provide examples of finding mentors for both professional and personal pursuits. Let’s dive in. Find Mentors Where Mentors Are Finding mentors may seem like a daunting task, but the key is surprisingly simple: go to the places where potential mentors are likely to be. Once you’re in the right environment, opportunities to connect with the right people will start to arise. Work Life In your career, finding a mentor is often about showing up in the right spaces. If you’re looking for a civil engineering mentor, for example, attend industry conferences, participate in workshops, or join professional associations where these engineers are likely to gather. You’re far more likely to meet a potential mentor in environments that foster learning, networking, and professional growth. Nowadays, there are also a plethora of mentorship platforms where you can connect with mentors from various industries. I’ve compiled a list here. It’s about being proactive. Simply showing up and engaging with others in your field can open doors to valuable relationships. Reach out to those you admire, ask questions, and be open to learning from their experiences. Personal Life Similarly, finding mentors for personal interests like photography, travel, or fitness follows the same principle: immerse yourself in the community. Want to learn pottery? Take a class, visit exhibitions, or attend local craft fairs. Interested in travel? Join online travel groups, go to meetups, or attend travel talks. The more you engage with people who are passionate about the same things you are, the more likely you are to find someone who inspires you and can guide you in your personal pursuits. Remember, finding good mentors isn’t about reinventing the wheel—it’s about putting yourself in the right places and being open to the connections that arise. It really is that simple and doesn’t need to be more formal than that. Look Around You! The truth is, we are often surrounded by potential mentors. The key is recognizing them and approaching them with a genuine desire to learn, rather than focusing on short-term gains like salary increases or promotions. People are more likely to mentor those who show that they are serious about learning and personal growth, without expecting immediate rewards. Work Life At work, you may already be surrounded by potential mentors. Senior colleagues, managers, or even peers who have more experience than you can serve as mentors. If you show that you’re willing to learn, work hard, and prioritize growth over immediate success, you’ll often trigger their natural instinct to help guide you. Most people enjoy mentoring someone who is genuinely curious and driven, especially when that person demonstrates dedication. Personal Life If you’re attending a class or workshop and see someone whose skills or experiences you admire, don’t hesitate to strike up a conversation. People who are passionate about what they do often enjoy sharing their knowledge with others who are eager to learn. By showing your enthusiasm and willingness to learn, you may inspire them to take you under their wing. That’s exactly what happened when I began my dance journey. I struck up a conversation with who became my first mentor and, to this day, a good friend. I told her I’d always wanted to learn Afro dance, but it was a big challenge since I’d never danced before. Months later, she admitted she didn’t believe me at first because so many people just wanted to learn a quick routine for TikTok and never returned. But as I kept showing up and showing my eagerness to learn, she eventually decided to mentor me over the next year. Mentors Can Be Temporary A common misconception is that mentorship has to be a long-term commitment, but that’s not always the case. This blog post by The Muse provides good insights about what a mentor is and isn’t. Sometimes, a mentor can guide you in just a single meeting, a brief conversation, or over a cup of coffee. The relationship doesn’t have to be formal or long-term for it to have a lasting impact. Work Life In the professional world, mentors don’t always stick around for the entirety of your career. Perhaps you meet someone at a conference who offers you a piece of advice that changes how you approach your work. Or maybe a senior colleague helps guide you through a challenging project, and once it’s done, the mentorship naturally ends. That’s perfectly okay. As a multi-entrepreneur, I can’t even count how many people have influenced my strategies and decision-making, even after only brief interactions. It’s crucial to keep an open mind and stay alert to unexpected advice. It helps you make the most of any short-term mentors who cross your path. Mentorship can be short-lived and still have a profound impact. Personal Life In our personal life, temporary mentors are common as well. You

10 Tips To Take the First Step in Starting Anything New Easing Yourself In, Mindset and Habits August 27, 2024 byCharlotte Taking the first step to learn something new, whether it’s an activity or a skill, can feel daunting. We often get overwhelmed by the sheer number of possibilities. This is especially true for multipotentialites. It’s no coincidence we compare feeling overwhelmed to climbing a mountain. When you look up at the summit, it can seem unreachable, which often discourages hikers. But those who take on the challenge usually find the journey rewarding, even if they don’t reach the highest peak. Many trails stop halfway up the mountain and are still incredible to do! The hardest part is often taking that first step. It’s like anything in life—once you get the hang of it, things become clearer. Going back to the mountain analogy, once you commit to the climb, you usually don’t regret it. In fact, it often gets easier as you find your pace and rhythm. The key is preparation, so you don’t feel discouraged. If you’re looking for ways to take that first step in learning something new, you’re in the right place! Here are 10 tips to help you clear your mind and figure out where to start. 10 Tips To Take the First Step 1. Find Your Passion Finding your passion is different for everyone. Maybe you’ve always felt drawn to a particular activity, tried it by chance one day and loved it, or read about it and slowly grew interested until you finally gave it a try. The path to discovering what truly excites you is unique and personal. The good news? We all have at least one passion, and if we haven’t found it yet, it’s out there waiting for us! As a kid, I was always drawn to the ocean and wanted to learn to surf. So, when I was old enough to live by the ocean, it was natural for me to start surfing and diving. But what about those of us who weren’t drawn to something specific early on? There are practical tips and exercises to get to know yourself better and proactively seek out your interests. I explore these further in another blog. It’s filled with tools to help you identify what you’d like to try next! 2. Set Clear Goals Setting clear goals helps you understand what you expect from this new endeavor and keeps you consistent. It sets you up for success. Don’t get me wrong, a goal can be as simple as, “I want to learn enough Italian to get by in basic conversations before my trip to Rome in six months,” or, “I want to improve my back flexibility to improve my lower back pain.” The point is, setting clear objectives doesn’t mean you’re aiming to be an expert—it just ensures you’re giving it a proper shot by knowing what you want from it. Goals can also evolve. When I started surfing, my goal was to ride a shortboard instead of a longboard because I liked the style better. But striving for this goal started taking the fun out of surfing. So I changed my goal to, “I want to surf in gentle waves where I feel safe and focus more on fun than performance.” Now, I often surf on longboards, and that’s fine! Setting goals helps us understand ourselves better, and sometimes what we think we want might not align with what we truly enjoy. Luckily, there are plenty of tools to help you organize and visualize your goals. I’ve enjoyed using Notion lately—it’s perfect for planning and breaking down goals into smaller tasks, which is especially useful if, like me, you have a tendency to want to do everything at once. 3. Start Small No one starts a marathon without first enjoying shorter runs. The same goes for any new skill or activity. Having ambitious goals is great, but what’s ambitious for a beginner doesn’t need to match what’s ambitious for someone with experience. When I realized swimming was the only endurance activity I liked and was decent at, I committed to swimming at least three times a week. Everyone said I should swim at least a kilometer per session, but I knew that wasn’t going to happen for a while. So, my first step was to break it down. I started by swimming breaststroke, which felt less tiring, and swam as many laps as I could before taking a break. My first sessions were maybe 500 meters with three breaks. Slowly, I worked on my breathing until I could swim closer to a kilometer. After a year of gradual progress, I now swim between 1.5 and 2 kilometers per session with only one short break. Baby steps are a powerful concept in life. Whatever you work on, it will pay off eventually. 4. Be Disciplined! You know the saying: motivation is 10% of the job; discipline is 90%. Motivation comes and goes. There’s always an excuse to skip practice or class. It’s too cold, too hot, too far away, or the teacher is too tough. If you start listening to these excuses, you’ll give up before you know it. In another blog, I mention how we, as humans, tend to prefer familiarity over novelty. If your brain gets a chance to lure you back to “safety” by sending fear signals—like fear of being judged or not being good enough—it will! Maddie Rose explains perfectly how you should never rely on motivation. That’s where discipline comes in. James Cear explains that “on average, it takes more than 2 months before a new behavior becomes automatic — 66 days to be exact“. Not much time in the grand scheme of things, right? 5. Build a Support System Surrounding yourself with the right people when you’re a beginner is crucial. This advice is often given in business, but it applies to everything. Surround yourself with people who elevate your spirit, make you feel like you