Every day I wake up and wonder, “Where am I”? Where am I going?
I was not clear on where am I heading. I started as a Java developer in EDS- Electronic Data Systems and Progressed through the various assignments. But what my Institution gave me? Institutions are just cloning people, and everyone is trying to mark their Identity, so am. But It took me nowhere. That’s when I reinvented myself.
Mentors need not be real, and they could be Virtual too; here I am Mentioning 5 Mentors that I came across in my life that changed my life drastically.
Mentor 1: James Altucher (Virtual -Indirect) – Reinventing Oneself
James is a great writer and one of my Favorites, “Reinvent” yourself. The world is changing so quickly. I knew Software, but with that alone, can I reinvent myself? Probably no from my experience. A few years ago, no one had tablets/smartphones, and Now almost everyone has that. The greatest artist (Picasso) reinvented themselves every five years. So, I felt its time for me to reinvent myself.
What is re-invent?
Finding new sources of income. We can’t ignore that money is important. Money buys freedom. But finding well being is also important, which I have learned from James. Thanks for your wonderful article!
Mentor 2: Stephen Covey(Virtual – Indirect) – Emotional Intelligence
Who needs Introduction to Stephen? Of course, one of my all-time favourites 7 habits of highly effective people, The 8th habit stunned me. Here is what he says,
The Knowledge Worker Age”. He says that “[t]he challenges and complexity we face today are of a different order of magnitude.” The 8th habit essentially urges: “Find your voice and inspire others to find theirs.”
We didn’t have retrenchment to the Intense we have today; We didn’t have billions of people in the world a few decades before, the complexity is high, Software is eating the world, Human-made software controls many of us. But how do we find our voice and inspire others? Such a thought-provoking question in me started to evoke. When I was in a stressful job, I was contemplating should i quit now and find a job? Or should I find a job and quit. If I have to quit my commitments kills, if I continue, of course, I am suiciding, Step back, and think from a situation, Don’t attach your personality and situation you will go nowhere. Find a voice in yourself, and you are the best adviser of yourself!
Mentor 3: Simon Sinek – Empathy( Virtual – Indirect)
I work as a Coach, I preach empathy in all my assignments, but do I have empathy? I discovered I didn’t know when I was working on my first assignment in 2014. When I started listening to his speeches, I discovered a new mentor, “Marines”,
Many people think leadership is about rank, power and privilege, and Marines believe that true leadership is the willingness to place others’ needs above your own.
Simon Sinek, author, consultant and famous TED speaker, gave a powerful talk on leadership’s responsibility to teach employees how to build strong, personal relationships. He spoke about how we often lack empathy and of the need for us to look and experience the world through another’s perspective. Bravo, Simon!
For that reason, Sinek titled his 2014 book Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together, and Others Don’t—a follow-up to his powerhouse Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action.
This gave me a different perspective of what empathy is? So I started practising it. Of course, I am not there yet, but definitely trying to be…
Mentor 4 : Steve Porter (Real – Direct ) – Patience
Patience is a Virtue; one of my ambitions in my life is to become a “Trainer”. I choose to become a Professional Scrum Trainer for various reasons (let’s not get into there now ). I went to attend my PSM TTT during my PST journey. Of course, that’s a journey; I was close to feeling like I would do it successfully. I did as I believed and moved on to the next stage.
Then comes the challenging “Peer Review” – It was around 8:30 PM, i believe (I am weak in remembering things), I sat for my peer review. There were a bunch of PST’s sitting virtually over the call and having an engaging conversation with me by asking me some questions. It was a 45 mins call; I felt am done. After few mins, I got to receive my feedback.
“You are not there “yet” “- Rejection put me to the state of Frustration & Here is what I learnt after having a conversation with Steve,
“I learned how to handle “No”.
“I learned that I had to be stand out in some way. “
“I learned how to be a better version of myself.”
“I learned to be persistent without resentment”.
Mentor 5: My mother – ( Direct and Powerful)
My Mother is not educated, She did her class 3rd, and she could not continue her studies as she lost her father when she was just 7 years old; I could not imagine this situation. But it is what it is.
“Nothing is more important than the Cultivation of yourself” – Society is made up of Individuals. The only way to improve society is to come at it from a place of deep satisfaction. The only way to do that is to spend long periods of time just being silent.
Silence is powerful, and at times, it generates more than a billion opportunities to traverse through the uncertainty.
I can’t thank my mother, But if I were allowed to thank her, All my credits go to my mother.
Everything is a Mentor; if you are Zero and have a passion for becoming +1, It’s all about reinvention. The trees you see, but you won’t see the roots, Which helps the tree stand!
If you want to reinvent yourself, Find a Mentor that’s a great starting point to continue to develop your PLUS, MINUS and ZERO. The compound exponentially into an exponential life.
References
Stephen Covey, James ‘Reinvent yourself”, Personal experiences 🙂
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