8 Steps to Finding the Perfect Mentor

As a young person, it’s important to have a mentor. A mentor is a wise and trusted counselor or teacher who helps guide an inexperienced or less knowledgeable person. The perfect mentor is a role model whom you admire, who will advise you and help you to achieve more in life, and who has a certain area of expertise in your field of choice.

At its core, a mentorship is founded on a common interest or goal. 

Effective mentors provide the vision that helps the mentee catch a glimpse of his or her potential future. You know… like Yoda did with Luke Skywalker. Yoda set out one challenge after another to help Luke manage himself better, hone his skills, and appreciate the responsibility he had to use his abilities for good.

For his book Creativity: the Psychology of Discovery and Invention, psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi interviewed over 91 of the most creative people in the world (including 14 Nobel prize winners). Do you know what they all had in common?

By the time they were of college age, almost every one of them had a mentor.

A few of the individuals mentioned in the book were taken under the wing of competent adult practitioners very early in life, and many were mentored during high school, but most of the remaining had an important mentor by the time they were in college.

So how do you find the perfect mentor (or mentors) for you?

There are formal programs such as Mentoring.org that match mentors with mentees and guide you through the mentorship process. Alternatively, a mentor can come from a naturally occurring relationship. It could be a friend or family member, coach, teacher, or pastor. Many professionals even have multiple mentors over the course of their careers as their needs and goals change.

This helpful infographic from Fundera tells how to find a perfect mentor in 8 easy steps!

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