The most successful people in life all have one thing in common: They have someone to help them navigate their path; a mentor, a coach, a personal trainer, or a teacher. Someone walked beside and ahead of them, helping them make their way.
If you were attempting an African safari, your most important decision would be who would lead you on your trek. Hopefully, you wouldn’t go online and do a search for Cheap African safaris. You also probably wouldn’t choose the guide with the best profile picture, the most Facebook friends, or the biggest safari hat.
How would you select your guide? You should study their reviews, get referrals from friends or other clients, and possibly perform some interviews.
How you select your business mentor should be no less thorough. Don’t select someone just because they’re the guru du jour, or the dude that seems to be everywhere or has great on-screen presence. Sure, it’s great to be hot, but there are other considerations to make when you’re selecting the right guide for you.
Here are some things you may want to think about.
Where is my business now, and what do I need to get to the next level?
What specifically am I hoping this coach or mentor can help me achieve?
How do I work best? Do I need weekly check-ins, daily updates, or monthly in-person calls?
Do I need someone to give me tough love or do I need a sympathetic guiding presence?
Different coaches and mentors have different styles. Some are no-nonsense taskmasters; others have a more gentle approach. Some are great cheerleaders, while others are better technicians. Some are great connectors; others are in-the-trenches comrades. No style is right or wrong; there’s only right or wrong for you. If you need someone to help you figure out how to set up a website and online shopping cart, a cheerleader isn’t going to do you much good.
By the same token, if you need someone to inspire you and introduce you to potential JV partners, a well-connected, you can do it! type may be perfect. No matter how nice, talented, or charismatic your coach is, a mismatch will cause you nothing but frustration.
To really move forward towards your goal, a mentor can be a perfect springboard, helping you move past obstacles and other blocks. But not all coaches are created equal. Find the one that matches your needs.
Find Patterns of Success
Even if you’re not quite where you want to be, you still have a history of success. You’ve graduated high school, done well on a test, lost weight, had a great friendship, or otherwise set and achieved some sort of goal.
By analyzing your past successes, you can find a lot of clues about how you best work and what you can do to set yourself up for future success.
I recommend mining your own past for success stories because not everyone works in the same manner. You may read a book about adopting a low-carb diet and lose 20 lbs. In two weeks. Wonderful! But right next to it on the bookstore shelf is a high-carb, low-fat diet that promises the same thing. And right next to that is the Zone diet, which is next to the Raw Foods Diet, which is next to… well, you get the picture.
Not everyone’s body is the same. Not everyone’s brain is the same. Nor is your motivation, history, goals, or personality. That’s why looking at your own history will be a huge clue as to how you can replicate your own patterns of success.
Here’s what you need to ask yourself.
When did I set this goal? Did I consciously set it, or was it an unconscious goal?
How analytical was I in charting out my path?
What kinds of obstacles and challenges arose, and how did I handle them?
Who helped me along the way? What specifically did they do to assist me? (Concrete skills, advice, sounding board, cheerleading…?)
Was I accountable to someone along the way? Who and how?
Did I track my progress? How?
If I were going to give someone else advice about how I achieved Goal X, what would I say?
If I were to go after this goal again, the one thing that I would do differently to speed up my progress would be…?
Repeat this series of questions with several different goals and maybe even some goals you didn’t achieve to look for patterns. You may discover you work best with an accountability partner, and when you tracked your progress in a visual manner. These are your patterns you can easily adapt and replicate for just about any goal you’re striving for.
We can overlook our own stories when trying to learn how to succeed. That’s a mistake. Often, the best indicators of future success are right under our own noses and in our own histories.
No matter what you chose to do or what niche you plan to spend your time promoting, you need to make sure that you are pursing those things that you are interested in and hopefully that you can become passionate about.
The fastest way I have ever seen to achieve true success in life or business is to constantly be in pursuit of your passion. If you can be passionate about your subject matter, you automatically elevate yourself to a higher level.
Dr. Mike Cockrell
P.S. If you are seeking a resource that will allow you to follow any path you choose, you might want to take a look at this revolutionary new system. Ray Higdon, the presenter in this video is one of my favorite mentors. Click here to learn more about how to accelerate your business.
