Good afternoon on a very cold day in Minnesota, and thank you for reading my self help blog!

Today I would like to share a few tips on how to find a good mentor who will help you on your path to self improvement.

What is mentoring?

Mentoring is simply the process of standing beside someone to support them in their personal, spiritual or professional development.

Mentoring takes many forms, and there are many types of mentors. You can expect a mentor to be somewhere between a ‘trusted friend’, ‘a guide’ and a ‘counselor’.

Mentoring is a proven process and works well in most environments — school, professional, personal and spiritual. Most, if not all successful people have had mentors at one time or another.

Begin a mentoring program with the end in mind.

Know

* Why you want a mentor
* What you plan to achieve through mentoring
* How you will measure your success

When you are looking for a mentor, find someone who

* is further along the road than you are
* operates from the same set of values
* you can relate well to
* is readily available when you are

You need a mentor who

* is available for a chat over the phone or in person
* is enthusiastic about the mentoring process and your development
* will encourage you and celebrate your achievements
* keeps you accountable to meet deadlines
* is well connected and can help you access other people when necessary
* helps you set realistic, yet stretching goals with deadlines 
* develop strategies to help you to achieve your goals
* gives constructive feedback
* helps you to overcome obstacles and use failure as feedback
* is willing to share their resources with you and to help you develop your own
* inspires, encourages and motivates you to be and do more

Of course, some mentoring programs are better than others. Do your homework before choosing a mentoring program. Get to know your intended mentor, either personally or through their work. Talk to other people who they have mentored and ask whether they can recommend the program, and why it is worth your time, money and effort. The best proof of the benefits of a mentoring program come from what those being mentored have to say about it.

A good mentoring program will provide systematic training, shorten the learning process and empower you to grow and develop. That makes it a powerful tool, enabling you to reach your potential and to progress more quickly than you would on your own.

Before you get started with the mentoring process, make sure you know what to expect, what is expected of you and how you will work together.

Mentoring is one of the most effective ways for you to grow, develop and become the person you want to be. It would be wise to find a mentor to help you to reach for your dreams and take the next steps.