Mentors unlock your potential by  University Speaker Katherine Miracle

Mentors provide knowledge, contacts and support for Mentees.  The successful mentor relationships have the mentee and mentor helping each other.

Mentors provide inspiration, share quotes and recommend books that will help you grow personally and professionally.  My mentors have opened doors for me and helped me make connections that have led me to successful projects and relationships. 

As a mentor I have tried to show  my mentees how passion has changed my life. When I learned from my past, added my interests(passion) I was able to create my future. In my career I often overlooked my past desire to become a college instructor and I kept thinking someday.  When I met with my mentor Virginia Marti Veith, she asked the question all mentors should ask mentees. What  career uses your past experience, captures your passion and fits your future plans?  I found myself pulling my past desire and expressing how I felt my business and teaching could combine to create my future.  Virginia Marti Veith is President of an Art and Design College and I am a marketer, advertiser and public relations strategist so I thought I would never be a fit.  My mentor saw my potential and asked me to teach Advertising Promotions class.  I never knew this class existed but my mentor created an opportunity.  I fell in love with teaching and went on to teach three other courses for Virginia Marti College of Art and Design in addition to teaching at Academy of Court Reporting and Technology, Polaris and The University of Akron. Who knew a simple question from my mentor would led me to finding my passion to teach and run my business.

Passion is gained through not finding exactly what you want but starting a journey to find your purpose and putting your commitment to the test. Risking, giving up everything and believing in your purpose is tough but living your life without passion means complacency and living a lie. My mentors taught me that you must find your truth!  I call it discovering your dawn, the moment when your truth is known and you learn from your past. One of my mentors says this is the day when you begin to live. It is not easy and does not mean your life is always happy it just means that you cannot deny what your purpose is and you cannot go back to the way you used to live.  Some people wait for someone else to take action and I found that I was waiting for someone to write a book to help college students and my mentors pushed me to realize I had the story, the experience and the passion to help college students.  Mentors see potential in you that you cannot see.

 Consider these questions in 2010:

What do your  Mentors do to help you?

 

How to choose them

What areas of your life do you need mentors?

How to secure them

Your unique mentor program

Communication and follow up

Help for your mentor

Stretch mentors- famous or hard to reach mentors

Exercise:

Select Three mentors

Select Three mentors

Mentor Plan of Action

List desired areas you need a mentor

Select desired mentors

Set dates to secure mentors