Connect to your inner power through your inner mentor

I’ve always believed in the power of a mentor. A mentor is someone who is there to guide you and focus on your personal and leadership development. My point of reference for the mentor has always been an external role. In the workplace, as one example, you are matched to a mentor. Sometimes, as another example, we also approach people to be our mentor be it for the short or long term. A mentor journeys with you and provides sage advice, support, encouragement and challenge. All of this, is centered around your growth and development. And so, you can just imagine my surprise when I first heard the term “your inner mentor”. Picture this, I’m on the zoom call and suddenly find myself leaning forward to hear more about this term. I was intrigued and my curiosity was piqued. Inner mentor? Like inner within me? What on earth is this all about 😊

The inner mentor is your inner wise woman. She is your light, wisdom, future-self, anchor, etc. And we all have an inner mentor. But we must make a concerted effort to get to know her, learn to trust her and learn to invite her to our challenges, celebrations, dilemas, milestones etc. And just in case you were wondering where that leaves the external mentoring role? Listen, I think that role is so worthwhile and essential. This isn’t a binary case of saying that I must either have an external mentor or an inner mentor. I think it’s about learning to value and access both – the external mentor AND the inner mentor.

Now learning to access, trust and fully utilise the inner mentor does require more conscientiousness, discipline and trust in ourselves. For many of us, learning to trust our inner wisdom as women may not have been the narrative we have grown up with or socialized to believe exists. I mean, think about it – rooting yourself in your inner mentor and operating from a fundamental belief that you have the answers you search for externally, inside of you is both a courageous and rebellious act. Why? Essentially you are learning to trust yourself. And we all know that the society we exist in, still punts that view that our wisdom and self-leadership must be acquired from the outside and then internalized. It’s not often we sit in conversations and talk with great intensity and gusto, about how we have so much of what we need – inside of us. Hence me saying it’s both a courageous and rebellious act. I think that’s the duality. I think it’s also a paradigm shift. In our Playing Big course, we learn to identify the inner mentor as our future self and the idea is that we grow into her.

Look out for the next blog post where I will talk about practical ways to access the inner mentor. For now, I invite you to reflect on your inner mentor and think about how to access your beautiful inner wise and courageous woman. She is waiting for the invite. So, go on, talk to her and connect to your inner power.

Thought-provoking questions:

• How can you regularly invite your inner mentor?
• What insights can she share with you?
• How can you take your lead from your inner mentor?