Everybody has mentors. They’re the people you look up to. Most of the time they don’t even know they’re your mentor, but you’ve chosen to learn from them. I’ve had tons of people I’ve looked up to. One thing remains as the bottom line of every mentor, they’re Christian men and women and I respect them all for different reasons. I’m in the process of writing a series of posts on those mentors. Who knows… maybe you’re on the list and you didn’t even know it.
The purpose of this blog series is to honor them and so that I can flesh out exactly what and why I learned from them. The first one releases this Monday.
In the meantime, I’d like to hear from you… who are/were your mentors and why?
Being in the public safety field, the best mentor I ever had was a sergeant who had been an officer for 20+ years. He mentored me in a phase of training in which I was struggling with. As I was loosing hope of passing, and in my mind floundering, he shared something with me which I have passed on many times as a trainer of young officers, now myself. One night after a high stress call, he called me into the office, which I immediately panicked about, and sat me down. He looked me in the eye and stated “kid I will never ask you to do something I have not done.”. This immediately affected me and gave me a new found confidence. Knowing or finally realiIng I was not being judged but groomed to succed. The realization that I was not the first one to have gone through this and not the only one who had ever struggled was liberating. Ever since this moment I not only passed the next few phases of training but acceled as a young officer, due to the knowledge there had been others before me and I was not alone.
thanks for sharing that Chas. i find that we go where we feel people will invest in us.