The "E" list

Exploring the different kinds of mentors there are... We either do these things for others or we seek them for ourselves.

Continuing with "E":

1. Excitement-or: Shows how to lead a parade

2. Embellishment-or: Good stylist

3. Employment-or: A coach for the job search process

4. Enactment-or: Unlocks body language and hidden signals

5. Endorsement-or: Models the best in promotion of others

6. Enforcement-or: Knows the rules and regulations

7. Engagement-or: A true people-person

8. Enrollment-or: Always seems to get folks to agree to do things

9. Embarrassment-or: Knows how to turn a mistake into an opportunity

10. Embodiment-or: A role model

Evoked Potential

The other week I had the misfortune to spend most of a day in the hospital for some tests (I’m fine). I brought a big book, a thermos of tea and prepared to trudge wearily from one department to another. Up and down corridors, in and out of the elevator, passing strange machines and distracted people.

I turned a corner and found myself in front of a door that was marked “Evoked Potential.”

In medicine, an evoked potential is the electrical response of the brain to a sensory stimulus. In school, potential is generally what many of us are told we’re not realizing fully. In dreaming about life, potential brims and flows - creating new ideas and pathways.

There was something very weird and wonderful standing before a closed door marked Evoked Potential. Was it a storage of such? The unused portions? The successes or misses? Would even opening the door cause magical transformation?

While I now know it's a valid medical term (who knew?), it gave me hours of thought around our journeys and all the people near and far who participate with us.

I really want to go back and try that door handle.

Monday Mentoring

I know it's good practice to get one's priorities set for the week. It's even better to tackle the big pieces first, in bite-sized chunks, to not let things pile up and keep a sense of accomplishment going. It's really terrific to plan beyond a week at a time, seeing the larger picture of life and not letting the daily traffic drag one down.

But it is February... and grey... and damp...

My Monday priority for the week is to stop looking and planning ahead for 7 days and just be aware of where I am now.

I am counseling all my mentorees to take a breath, a moment of gratitude or even a nap. We'll figure out/take stock/evaluate next week. This week, I suggest we just be present.

I'll listen to folks while they talk and not think 2 steps ahead. I'll eat whatever is already stockpiled in my freezer. I'll enjoy what I've got and where I am before I move on to wondering if I should change anything.

Movement and action isn't always what's needed. Reflection can be overdone. Awareness is an underrated sense of being.