(LinkedIn) The Value of Having a Mentor

Who do you reach out to when you’re struggling in your personal life? Is it the same person you call upon when you’re struggling with your personal life, too? What happens when your personal life starts to negatively impact your professional life? They say that you’re supposed to “leave your personal life at home”… but how realistic is that, really?

This post is another little overshare, but you should be getting used to this by now. 💁🏻‍♀️

April 2nd is a day that will always have significant meaning to me. Today marks the 7-year anniversary of my Dad’s death. This goofy guy… who could singlehandedly be the one I attribute my quirky, sarcastic, borderline always inappropriate sense of humour to. For those who don’t know the story, he was diagnosed with ALS-Lou Gerhigs disease in 2012, and died at home in 2016. What a horrible disease… 10/10 do not recommend.

The plot thickens, when my healthy, vibrant, beautiful best friend died very suddenly/tragically in September 2019 from an aortic anneurysm when she was 26-weeks pregnant. We lost both her, and the baby that night. It was a call that shook me to my core.

This year has been especially difficult for me because it marks a significant amount of time since my Dad has been gone; my cells have entirely regenerated themselves. To make matters worse, 6-months before he died, my Mom was also diagnosed with colon cancer, and over the course of the next 6-years, went through multiple surgeries; three of which were to remove cancer from deep within her brain. She just passed away on December 8th last year. Many people in my professional network know her story.

I miss them… every single day.

Where am I going with this? Well… I’m trying to illustrate how my personal life has at times literally bulldozed over every professional priority I could possibly have. Reputation? Who’s she?

Who do you turn to when you feel like your world is upside-down and unraveling? When you yourself just got diagnosed with cancer? When you feel guilty about the responsibilities that are piling up at work, worrying about your team that counts on you, and your boss who is covering your work load on top of their own? Have a little menty-b, and cry in the parking lot at work?

The answer for me? A mentor.

A mentor is someone that I have relied on over the course of my professional development journey; keeping in mind that a lot of the things that have happened to me were when I was in the throws of building a life for myself. A mentor is like having a best friend, and role model all wrapped into one. You trust them with your personal problems the same as professional, because they care about both… they care about YOU.

The article below resonates with me. I want to THANK all of the people who have acted as mentors to me over the years.

I wouldn’t be here without you… I hope you know who you are 🤍