October 19th, 2019

​For many of my adult years, I went around thinking that I knew best. Not in a cocky, self assured way, but more of a 'this is my journey, if I ask for help then I've failed' kind of way. I speak in my story about how I went through several perceived failures in my career. That developed into a sinking feeling that perhaps I wasn't meant to succeed on the same level as I had once hoped for. Maybe I wasn't meant to do more? Surely if I was, I would be doing it by now?
 
I can't remember the exact moment that I thought about mentoring, but I do know that it was a hail mary for my career. I had developed my basic, entry level skills as much as possible, but I still had that feeling underneath that I wasn't done yet. I just needed a little help getting that feeling front and centre, so I accepted that I might need a mentor. It was the best decision that I made because my feelings of failure and my feelings of potential success were put into the correct perspectives with my mentor's help, and I developed the confidence and conviction to go after what I wanted.
 
You might be in a similar position in your career. You might even be enjoying your position, or you might be a few steps above entry level, earning good money and making your mark in your industry. From my experience though, it doesn't matter where you are in your career. You need a mentor if there is a disconnect between a faint feeling you can do or be more, and the position you are currently in. Don't ignore that feeling, go after it. 
 
Another reason for seeking out a mentor, and the main reason that I hope to have a handful of other mentors in my life, is that of continuous growth and development. Knowing how beneficial my first mentoring relationship was to my career, makes me excited to see what good can come from future mentoring relationships. The world keeps moving and changing; you'd be a fool to stand still and not move and change with it. Self-development is high on my list of priorities, and a great way to achieve that is through mentoring. 
 
Honestly though, I think the best way to know if you need a mentor is if you've found this blog post online after searching the question 'do I need a mentor?', or something similar. If you're asking the question, then you already have your answer - yes! Your next step is finding your mentor, which we discussed in one of our launch day blogs last week. 
 
Did you find the answer to this question another way? Let me know in the comments below and lets start a discussion about that moment that you knew mentoring was your next move. Don't forget to subscribe to the weekly newsletter below to be the first to hear about enhance mentoring's future blogs.