All I Can Offer to You (The Power of Mentorship)
Yesterday I met with a mentor. This is a person who holds a certain kind of space for me and simply shows up with the perspective and expertise to work through some of the things I wonder about. There’s a distinctive kind of clarity, delight, and energy that comes from doing this.
It’s a conversation I can’t have with anyone else. It’s one that I need. It’s one that I didn’t know I needed until recently. Isn’t it funny the things we don’t know that we need? How many things do you need without knowing it? That’s what you’re here to use the rest of your life to discover. It could be said that simply.
Clients tell me similar things. That I have a kind of conversation they need but didn’t know until they started talking to me. And then they are able to go through life, navigating the challenges and tensions, secure in the knowledge that a place of refuge is available at a periodic interval. And they learn to instinctively know the questions and challenges they can bring to that space.
All I can offer you is this…
I will live, love, engage and build
I will be fully present as I do
I will continue to grow my level of awareness, self-awareness, and awareness of self-awareness
I will study the experience closely
I will analyze it with intelligence
I will ponder it with thoughtfulness and detachment
I will be completely honest about what I see and conclude
I will hold space for you to do the same
You will leave renewed, empowered, and inspired
Yes, that’s what I can offer you. Ultimately it’s about creating renewal, in a space of retreat from the absurdity of life. This strange dance of human life in which we all instinctively know the absurdity but also realize that collectively sublimating it and publicly displaying masks that indicate otherwise is somehow what we all need to do to keep it working. That last part might not be true, but we need to tread carefully as we evaluate which Jenga blocks to poke at.
In the space I provide nothing is sacred, and that makes everything sacred. You are completely free to shed your masks and simply tell me what you see and feel from your unique vantage point within the human condition. I will honor everything you say and help you process it.
Ultimately, that’s all I can offer you. But don’t miss its significance.
I am still basking in the glow of my last mentoring session. A conversation I can have with no one else, that infuses all of my thoughts like a sweet pastel perfume (although you might write a different poem about your convo with me!) It is coloring and shaping the way I think, see, and feel about everything. It’s what I need. It’s profound. I wake up at 3 am, thoughts stimulated and busily reframing everything I thought I knew, stirring up the pieces, mixing, reshaping, and reforming my perspective to take me closer to the place of fulfillment I seek.
And if you’re the right person, it’s what I can offer to you.
Want to accept that offer? Let’s talk.