Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to consult your inner mentor. We all
Speaker 1: know about the importance of mentors. Since Telemachus got advice
Speaker 1: in the Odyssey from the character named mentor, really the
Speaker 1: disguised goddess of wisdom Athena, plenty of us have sought
Speaker 1: advice from wiser, more experienced sorts. Some of us have
Speaker 1: been fortunate enough to serve that role for other people.
Speaker 1: Mentors are wonderful. The trouble, though, is that most aren't
Speaker 1: disguised Greek gods. They are busy human beings. They don't
Speaker 1: necessarily have time to meet with us when we need them.
Speaker 1: If we need to make decisions quickly, they can't always
Speaker 1: squeeze us in, and there are other issues wise. As
Speaker 1: they might be, your mentors might not be unbiased about
Speaker 1: your dilemmas. Your manager, for instance, is not neutral on
Speaker 1: the question of whether you should accept a job offer
Speaker 1: from a competitor. Your mentor from outside your company, the
Speaker 1: one who put you in touch with his friend at
Speaker 1: that competitor, isn't neutral about it either. So what can
Speaker 1: you do. One of my favorite ideas is to consult
Speaker 1: your inner mentor alongside any external ones. I first learned
Speaker 1: of this idea from Tara Moore's book Playing Big. More
Speaker 1: is a coach who helps people focus on sharing their
Speaker 1: breakthrough ideas on as big a stage as possible. This
Speaker 1: often requires courage. Doing anything new is quite likely to
Speaker 1: bring out our inner critics, that voice that asks who
Speaker 1: you think you are to be shaking things up. But
Speaker 1: More suggests that you can also tap your inner mentor.
Speaker 1: This quieter, wiser, inner voice can offer all sorts of insights.
Speaker 1: Your inner mentor can give you a kind of support
Speaker 1: that no outer mentor can give you more rights. He
Speaker 1: or she's not a replacement for outer mentors, but it
Speaker 1: is a necessary compliment to them. Because she's inside of you,
Speaker 1: she'll always be there for you unfailingly. There are no
Speaker 1: issues of competition or betrayal. Because it's your inner voice.
Speaker 1: The guidance won't be a reflection of what worked for
Speaker 1: someone else. It will always be just right for you.
Speaker 1: To start to listen to this inner mentor's voice. More
Speaker 1: suggests visualizing yourself twenty years in the future, but not
Speaker 1: just any you twenty years in the future. This is
Speaker 1: a vision of you that is whole, centered and loving.
Speaker 1: As More puts it, if you were to be wonderfully
Speaker 1: fulfilled twenty years from now, what would your life look like.
Speaker 1: Where do you picture this version of yourself? What is
Speaker 1: this person doing? How does he or she act? In
Speaker 1: my time management fable Juliette's School of Possibilities, I suggest
Speaker 1: a version of this future visioning by having my main
Speaker 1: character imagine herself at a dinner party given in her
Speaker 1: honor twenty five years from now. As people stand up
Speaker 1: to give toasts about her impact twenty years in the future,
Speaker 1: she sees what truly matters to her. She starts to
Speaker 1: ask what she can do now to bring herself closer
Speaker 1: to this vision. You could try envisioning this future dinner
Speaker 1: party in the toasts too. Once you have a vivid
Speaker 1: sense of this older, wiser, more authentic version of yourself,
Speaker 1: you'll find that she exists as a voice within you. Now.
Speaker 1: More says, when you're facing a dilemma, try asking this
Speaker 1: inner mentor what he or she would do. After I
Speaker 1: met my inner mentor, More rights, when I was faced
Speaker 1: with an important decision, I'd ask myself which of these
Speaker 1: roads moves me closer to becoming that woman I saw
Speaker 1: in the visualization. That criteria helped me quickly say a
Speaker 1: lot of nose and some significant yes is. It helped
Speaker 1: me tune out external pressures and helped me find the
Speaker 1: answers that were right for me. So at some point today,
Speaker 1: try sitting quietly for a few minutes and picturing your
Speaker 1: inner mentor, how would you, with twenty more years of
Speaker 1: wisdom and experience deal with your current challenges. When you're
Speaker 1: debating how to answer a difficult email or solve a
Speaker 1: work crisis, picture what your inner mentor would do what
Speaker 1: he or she would tell you to do. You might
Speaker 1: be surprised at just how swiftly you can start to
Speaker 1: make tough decisions in the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening, and here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod
Speaker 1: that's B the number four then Breakfast p o D.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: Podcast at i heeart media dot com that Before breakfast
Speaker 1: is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much,
Speaker 1: I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is
Speaker 1: a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from
Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
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