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Among the most valuable things you can do for your recovery is to find a mentor that supports you and holds you accountable. Likewise, perhaps the most valuable thing you can do for your career is to find a career mentor to bring value and significance into your career path.
Much like a sobriety mentor, a career mentor can guide and motivate you to achieve your professional goals regardless of whether you're just starting or further into your career. A career mentor helps you explore career opportunities and find ways to grow within your company as you learn from someone who has succeeded in your field. A career mentor will improve your confidence and provide tools and strategies to help you deal with challenges.
Let's look closer into what you stand to benefit from having a career mentor and how you can go about finding one.
LEARNING FROM REAL LIFE EXPERIENCE
Career mentors offer more than just reassurance for your decisions; they offer you valuable advice and insight into their journey in the field you have chosen. They help you identify the skills and expertise you need to continue to develop. Their ability to do so comes from having to endure and overcome their challenges faced along the way. Their experience provides a great perspective on what they might have done differently given a chance. Such insight can offer you a leg-up when preparing for challenges, such as the responsibilities of having a family, tending to your personal needs outside of your career, and managing your recovery. You might discover that you share similar experiences, which will help establish trust with your mentor and see things from a different perspective when approaching a similar challenge.
BUILDING STRONGER CONNECTIONS
You have likely learned that a vital part of recovery is making healthy and meaningful relationships geared toward helping you grow and accomplish your goals. Your career mentor offers a vast network of connections. Having a career network will aid both you and your mentor; if your mentor doesn't have experience with a particular problem you are facing, they will talk with someone who has. Additionally, contacts introduced to you by your mentor provide an opportunity to form relationships and grow your network. Such relationships could offer you potential business partnership opportunities in the future. At START UP RECOVERY, our unique approach to rebuilding networks accommodates both your personal and professional needs.
SOUNDING BOARD
It is common for many to feel apprehensive about sharing their inner desires and ways to reach their goals. You may have all of these thoughts and ideas but no way to get feedback. Or perhaps you feel intimidated to express your thoughts and plans to others. However, the relationships with your mentor will rely on trust and security. Your career mentor will provide you a safe place to express your ideas, thoughts, and visualizations. Having a sounding board, if only to listen to you, helps you get your thoughts out there, and your mentor can even help you decide which way to go in certain situations. They could make suggestions that refine your ideas and provide more efficient and effective ways of achieving desired outcomes. Perhaps the most significant advantage is that your mentor can help you avoid trying to think about reinventing the wheel unnecessarily.
INCREASE ENERGY AND INTEREST
A career mentor does not only help keep you accountable and motivated, but their enthusiasm can offer you an increase in energy and interest. They have an innate ability to increase your drive to excite you to pursue your chosen career. A mentor accomplishes this by working on ways to help you overcome boredom and complacency by helping you keep exploring new and exciting opportunities within your selected field. Sometimes you can get caught up in the day-to-day grind and begin to second guess yourself, and having someone to help you stay interested offers you a significant advantage for enduring the grind and reaching new heights. They may also help you stay interested by suggesting ways to increase your involvement in activities outside of your organization that contributes to your career success in the future.
ADVANCE YOUR CAREER
True success happens when you take the time to learn and work on yourself from the inside out. Such an effort includes knowing yourself, your triggers, impulses, and cravings, as well as how to overcome internal mental challenges. Practicing mindfulness, meditation, and even exercise all contribute to helping you transform yourself into the person you want to be. Much like recovery, working with a mentor helps you stay focused on yourself and your career to improve your skills, networks, self-confidence, and ultimately success. When helping you learn about yourself, you can become confident with the steps you take moving forward, which all help you achieve an optimum outcome because you can appreciate that you got yourself here.
Unlike books, education, and web pages, a career mentor can go beyond formal education because they have personal experience and identify with where you're at in your career. A mentor is present to improve the areas within yourself necessary to help you apply what you have learned. Therefore, much like recovery, it goes beyond just knowing; it requires practice and development from within to experience the knowledge's benefits. At START UP RECOVERY, we work to help transform the self. We do this by offering a strong network of professionals and peers that will identify and motivate you toward seeking the personal and professional life you deserve. Whether you are just getting started or need another spark of motivation to help you continue on your path to recovery and success, START UP RECOVERY is the best place for you. With a sunny SoCal location, you will never be short of energy and inspiration. To learn more, call us today at 310-773-3809.