The Importance of Mentors and Role Models

Who do you admire?

This morning I was prompted to think about Role Models for living or my Mentors. Initially I couldn’t think of any! Which seemed a little strange to me, but as I thought about it I realised that I’ve always disliked the way people have a tendency to go totally crazy over another human being and lose track of themselves. I thought about how when I was young, all my friends would have posters all over their walls of whoever was the latest craze! That these posters would last a few weeks, maybe a few months before they were on to the next person/band/theme. I never really subscribed to that.

The longer I thought about it, though, I began to realise that I do have people in my life who I truly admire. In fact I have quite a collection of them, I had just not thought about them as role models before. It was just the wrong phrase.

So I decided to sit down and make a little collection of pictures of my role models doing their thing. It seemed like a fun little exercise at the time. Actually it was really good fun! I sat down at the laptop, and spent about 30 minutes browsing through Google Images and selected a few favourites. I’ve added them to a Pinterest Board and have also pasted them into a powerpoint slide, so now I have a collage of images, not only of people who really inspire me, but of them doing things that inspire me!

Just looking at this collage now brings a big smile to my face! I created this first thing this morning, and since then I’ve had a very busy and not very inspiring kind of work day. Whenever I felt that I was falling into a negative head space I just brought out the collage I’d created and suddenly I knew that things were possible. It’s really helped me to “change the channel” because it instantly makes me think about positive things.

I plan to print a copy of this out and stick it on my wall to bring a smile to my face through the day.
I’d love to share my collage with you, but I’m not sure if I’m allowed to because of copyright – so instead I will just tell you who’s on it – in case you are interested:

• Sonia Choquette
• Lilou Mace
• Tami Simon
• Donna Eden
• Gabby Bernstein
• Rebecca Campbell
• Penelope Smith
• Denise Duffield-Thomas
• Joanna Hunter
• Rebecca Kane
• Karina Ladet

Wonderful inspiring, creative, uplifting people!
So who would you have in your collage? And how do you surround yourself and spend time with people who inspire you?