Week 9: The Mentor Tree

As part of the 20% Project, you selected a mentor to help guide you in your project. Some of you have mentioned how you talk to or visit your mentor once a week. Others only chat via email maybe every other week.

Today, I'd like you to talk about how your mentor has been helping you. This is your time to publicly thank him/her for the guidance they have offered.

Why do you need a mentor? 

Having a mentor can be one of the most helpful habits to help you in the long-term. This is especially true once you leave school. After you have gone and graduated, there will be no 'teachers' in your lives: that is, people who are assigned to instruct you in a classroom. So having mentors to help you achieve your goals is one of the best habits to have.

All you need to do is choose a goal, find someone whom you admire for achieving a similar goal, and ask them for help. In fact, often times people take it as one of the highest compliments when you ask them for help.

In the extremely popular book, The Hero With a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell talks about The Mentor Tree. It's the stage in The Hero's Journey where you're down your path on purpose and struggle to keep going. Then a mentor shows up just when you need them and they help you create something incredible.

Remember that scene in Star Wars where Luke Skywalker meets Yoda? Yeah, that's the stage in The Hero's Journey that I'm talking about.

To help you out, here's an interview I did with Mark J. Carter where we talk about the value of mentorship and how to find mentors in your life.

Of course it helps if you can see them personally, but sometimes you can have mentors who you never actually talk to. Because we live in such a transparent world now, it is entirely possible for someone to model their actions off of a mentor just by watching a few TED talks, reading their Linkedin profile, and following their daily Twitter feed or blog posts.

All right, that's enough talk about mentors :) I think I made my point. But don't just take my advice, here is a list of other books and people who talk about the value of mentors:

1. Forbes Article on Mentorship 
2. Tony Robbins on Mentorship 
3. Mentoring.org 

P.S. Want to get more people to view your work? You can share your blog posts on Twitter using the hashtag #20time or #geniushour.

Oh yes....excuse me....the poodle picture of the week. How could I forget? I had to sniff around the internet for this one, but I think you'll sneeze with laughter at this little booger.