The Invisible Mentor

Archive for August, 2009

A few days ago I promised that I would create a slide show with photographs of nature to see if nature can really mentor us. Here is the slide show, please let me know what you think.

Here are my thoughts on the photos with accompanying music. Life may be cloudy but there is beauty in everything, even our sorrows. All we have to do is take time for reflection. We all need nurturing to sustain us and we need to nurture others so that we can all spread our wings and soar. Life is fluid and squirrely, but it is important to enjoy the fruits of  life and its many wonders. If we stretch ourselves we will grow because lessons are always around us. Mother nature can guide us, if we let her, is that not what a mentor is?

What are your thoughts, could nature mentor you?

Music Credit: Say Hey (I Love You), Michael Franti

I am interested in books that influence successful people so I am always on the lookout for great books. I also conduct many interviews and one of the questions that I ask is, “Which book had a profound impact on your life?” And most often, it isn’t business books that have had an impact on successful people. The books listed were culled from interviews that I conducted as well as from a New York Times article “C.E.O. Libraries Reveal Keys to Success.”  I have read some of the books on the list and will get to the rest.

The Girls’ Guide to Building a Million-Dollar Business, Susan Wilson Solovic

Influence: Science and Practice, Robert Cialdini

How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling, Frank Bettger

Power vs. Force: The Hidden Determinants of Human Behavior, David R. Hawkins

The Magic of Thinking Big, David J. Schwartz

New Psycho-Cybernetics, Maxwell Maltz

All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes, Maya Angelou

Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph, Thomas Edward Lawrence

The New Penguin History of the World, J. M. Roberts

The Grapes of Wrath (Penguin Classics), John Steinbeck

Dante’s Divine Comedy: Hell, Purgatory, Paradise, Dante Alighieri

Rey Carr from Peer Resources told me about Marsha Sinetar’s book The Mentor’s Spirit: Life Lessons on Leadership and the Art of Encouragement because he believed that it had some similarities to The Invisible Mentor Concept on this blog. I borrowed the book from the Toronto Public Library today and read the introduction. I am very delighted that Rey referred the book to me because now I know another person who thinks like I do. Here is Sinetar’s definition of mentoring and mentor spirit:

“A mentor is a person, guide or teacher – the keeper of selective wisdoms that we hope to gain. On the other hand, the mentor’s spirit is the “almost anything” that deepens our sense of the sacred or our understanding or transmits a kind of gladness  about life itself.”

Just reading the introduction, and part of the first chapter of The Mentor’s Spirit, I have expanded my thinking around the Invisible Mentor, and that that’s why I ask the question, “Could Nature Be You Mentor?” Sinetar’s definition of mentor spirit reminded me of the popular story about Isaac Newton thinking about the Law of Gravity after an apple fell from a tree, and the airplane and hang gliders were invented by studying birds in flight.

What are your thoughts? Could nature be your mentor? On MondayI will create a slide slow with nature scenes and let’s see if we are mentored by what we see!

Related Posts

Review of On Natural Selection
Connecting the Dots When There are no Dots

Photo credits: Avil Beckford

Recently I have been pre-occupied with thinking about the knowledge that I have acquired so far in my Raja Yoga class. The first three classes, which I have taken, focused on self-mastery. I always strive to better myself so that I will grow into the person that I was meant to be. In the class, we are given tools to use to better ourselves, to help us to master our weaknesses.

A big weakness for me has always been letting go. I stay on a project longer than I should, trying to make it work, even though I know deep down that it is a lost cause. I start reading a book and really hate it but feel obliged to finish it so I continue to torture myself. Have you ever been in that situation? Someone does something that I do not like and I replay the situation over and over again in my mind. This is not a good habit because it holds you back. In the three weeks that I have been in the class I have made leaps and bounds because I was determined to let go.

Even though I was focusing on letting go, I saw improvements in other areas as well. The tools I have so far, are handouts which you read everyday. I have been reading these handouts every day for three weeks and each time I notice something new. And, because I am studying the tools, they are becoming a part of me, and I am changing rapidly and surprising myself. Things that used to upset me no longer do, and I am now focusing on what is important to me.

I would like to share three of the ideas from the handouts with you. Take time and really let the words sink in and let me know what you think.

Become a Leader Not a Follower

Do not speak the language of a follower: “If he changes, I will change…If she apologizes, I will apologize…If the situation changes, I will change.” Many people have come out of bad situations and have changed their lives. The leader is one who takes the initiative.

Do Not be Absorbed with the Problem

Concentrate on the solution: Like the old cameras, the manual ones that you had to focus. As you focus on one thing, the rest of the picture loses its edge. There is always a solution.

Withdraw

Withdraw means to be able to detach ourselves from any current situation, or personal conflict. The power to withdraw is a true controlling power… It needs accuracy, since accuracy will warn you at the correct time to withdraw. With the exercise of this power, we are able to save ourselves from many regrets.

What do you think about the three ideas above? Could they help you to become the person you were meant to be? How might they help you in your work and life?

Related Post

Letting Go: If you can keep your head…

I am reading The Nature of Economiesby Jane Jacobs as background research for a paper that I am writing for Infed.org. Jacobs was an urban philosopher and visionary.

I have pulled five ideas from the book, and attempt to show how readers might apply the information to their work and life. I am sure that you could come up with better applications for these ideas.

The “Knowledge Age” is going to become the Lost-Age unless preserving specimens of work is taken as seriously as preserving apples and beans




Thousands of years ago, people were combining materials and devices that were radically different to form something new




People are naturally creative




People do not need to be geniuses or even extraordinarily talented to develop their work, they only need to be resourceful and show initiative




Know thyself…We learn about ourselves by learning about others and how we relate to them

Idea 1

How do you preserve your family’s history and stories? Have you been recording them for your children? Within the organization, what are you doing to record the knowledge that is in the older worker’s head?

Idea 2

How might you combine two good products that are very different, to create an extraordinary one? How might you combine a very different process in another industry with one in yours to create an entirely new way of doing things?

Idea 3

 In what ways can you exercise your natural creativity to positively impact your financial situation? How might you use your creativity to develop a new process, model or product to contribute to your organization’s bottom line

Idea 4

 In what ways could you develop the work you do by simply giving it some serious thought. What resources available to you could you use? If you systematically thought through your work process, how might you improve it? What inefficiencies could you remove or how could you expand your work?

Idea 5

When was the last time you had a meaningful conversation with someone who was very different from yourself? If you have, what insights did you glean, and what did you learn about yourself?

These are five ways that you can connect new information to what you already know. What other ways could you connect these ideas?