Daily Prompt: Cheering Section

Do you have a mentor? Tell us about him or her. Are you a mentor to someone else? Tell us what that relationship has added to your life.

Do I have a mentor?? ahh, no.

Just the thought of it brings about images of motivational / inspirational graphics basically saying “You can do it!!” “Be the most awesomest person you can be every day!” “Don’t ever let anybody stand in your way”… blah blah blah. 

I know that’s not generally what mentor’s are like, but that’s the first thing that pops into my head. Some kind of weird word-association that I have.

Have I been a mentor, myself? Yes. One of my jobs is as a fitness professional, so I’ve been a choreography and technique mentor to a couple of people, but I haven’t done so for a while now. A couple of people have approached me, but then haven’t followed through with it, so I guess they’re just not as serious as they initially were, or their interests have changed over time. 

Those whom I have mentored, have seen great improvement (sometimes dramatic improvement) in both their physical performance, and their execution of movement, which, in turn, has helped improve the performance of their class participants. For me, that’s really rewarding – to see such a transformation and know that I was responsible in helping them achieve that transformation.

I find it quite humbling.

I actually love the idea of being a mentor to people. Being able to see a potential in them, and then help them is something that I really enjoy. Coming from a dance background, I was always striving to be better. Better technique, better performance, better ability – and those are the same qualities I want (expect) from anybody I mentor. They’re approaching me because they want to improve.

However, I always tell them if they want to improve, they need to want it enough to want to put in the extra effort.

I’m not going to waste the little free time I have, on people who aren’t prepared to work. If you want to improve, you need to put in the effort to do so. You need to have the drive and desire for that change and improvement, otherwise, you’re just wasting your time, and mine. Even writing that, it sounds quite blunt, but that’s a reality that they are faced with. 

If you’ve been executing movement with incorrect technique and nobody around to help correct you, it’s going to take longer to retrain your mind and your body into the correct technique. 

…and this is the precise point that I jump on a tangent and go on a rant, so I’m going to stop myself.

 

Until next time…

 

 

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