Mentor me

Yesterday, I had my first meeting with my new mentor, Jane Perdue. I decided to participate this year in the Charleston Young Professionals Mentor/Mentee Program. While I’ve had informal mentors throughout my career, especially my early journalism career, I’ve never gone through a formal mentoring program.

You might say, “Holly, you’re almost 35 years old, do you really need mentoring at this stage of the game?” Yes, I do.

Mentoring isn’t just for 22 year olds in their first job. Yes, my mentoring experience will be vastly different from the 20-something’s experience. And who’s to say a 45-year-old professional couldn’t be mentored by someone with more wisdom? In my opinion, you’re never too old to be mentored because you’re never too old to stop improving yourself, growing and learning.

So, why did I feel the need for a mentor in 2011? If you know me or have read this blog over the last couple of years you’ll know I’ve gone through some fairly big – and stressful – situations, including a complete career change. When your career change is a matter of circumstances and isn’t exactly something you’ve had time to think about and plan, the transition can be difficult.

Plus, I continue my struggle with how to keep all the balls in the air, while making time for myself and some personal writing projects I hope to pursue this year. I’m eager for guidance in that area as well.

So Jane and I had lunch, laying out four goals for the coming year and my task is to figure out some steps to make those happen (with her input, of course). I’m eager for an outside perspective, someone who can look at my life from 5,000 feet and offer up ways to improve, change or grow.

I’ll blog some of my experience and lessons learned along the way. Would love to know if anyone else has ever gone through a mentor program and whether you found it helpful.