[blox_column width=”1/1″][/blox_column][blox_heading title=”Several months ago I held a beautiful baby boy.” size=”h3″ style=”style5″ animation=”none”][/blox_heading][blox_text animation=”none”]
He was just weeks old. Uniquely, when his 30 year-old mother was his age, I also had the privilege of holding her within her first year of life. Her 63 year-old father is a stellar business leader whom I’ve mentored since his college days. It was a meaning-filled moment of looking and and valuing the work Leadership Design Group does across the Three3rds of Life.
If all goes as hoped, that little tyke will grow into a man who is also committed to making a difference in our world, like his parents, like his grandparents, like most all who know, love and support this intergenerational family. But that doesn’t just happen on a whim.
Mentoring a whole person,
no matter their age,
brings us back full circle to being
intentional,
focusing on deep change,
for one’s whole life,
is all 8 dimensions,
with transformation being experienced
in each decade of that developing life.
No matter the age of the individual, each dimension of the Circle of Life helps to explore and define what has taken place…what needs to be taking place…what is taking place in a life. That newborn I held has his 8 Dimensions, as do I in my mid-70’s.
Parents are a child’s first mentors. Grandparents, aunts and uncles, even siblings add their insights to a child’s development. Then we add in friends of the family, teachers, coaches, etc., that help to launch a young life into their place in their unfolding world. Those that know about, are living out in their own lives, and are passing on the truths of LDG’s Whole Life Mentoring Model are, sincerely, having an eternal impact on others…no matter the age.
Yes…it takes a bit of preliminary, yet valued, work to begin to think about yourself, and others, from a whole person viewpoint. By now, you and I both know that life just doesn’t “happen” if there is going to be fulfillment in our days and years on Planet Earth.
In this moment, sitting in my home office, staring out at a pending thunderstorm cruising in from the northwest Rockies, watching people return to the neighborhood from their work day, I am again reminded of the wide variety of humans right here in Colorado. This is a daily pattern in every town and village in our world.
Refugees are created to be whole people, just as are the the people flying out of the local executive airport in their private jets. The lady in our neighborhood, who is without arms and legs, but who walks a mile a day on her artificial limbs is a whole person. The single mom up the street, raising two daughters on her own, is a whole person. Our neighbor, whom we have known all his life, is off to college in another state after a successful high school career, and he leaves home as a whole person. Everyone you interacted with today, and will tomorrow, was created to be a whole person.
You,
with your own personal history,
were created to be
fully alive as a whole person.
Some people I know have experienced deep grief over the loss of a loved one, yet even in their grief they are a whole person. Others are flat out excited about an unexpected promotion, and that certainly adds to perceived value they have about themselves and their profession.
Yes, we could go on and on. You and I could both name a number of people who are doing well, and also grimace at those who are not doing well, either by circumstance or choice. But whether “making it,” or not, every human on the planet was created to live as a whole person…even those we see with disabilities, or those who are not making the best of choices for how they live their lives.
Wholeness is an inside job.
Our Circle of Life Whole Person Mentoring Model, primes a wide variety of mentors to be able to interact and get to know another human, of any age. This model provides a creative grid for simply observing people I may never get to know. It also generously allows permission to go deeper with people with whom there will be a mentoring friendship, possibly even a life-long relationship.
As I share in our LDG Mentor Training Workshops, so often people will ask me, “How did we get into me telling you so much about my life in such a short time? What did you ask me?”
Carefully, intentionally, according to their age and life experience, etc., I will have said something akin to, “Who are you? Tell me who you are.” Then I zip my lips and listen, and listen, and listen, and ask clarifying questions, and listen some more.
In 3-4 short paragraphs
how would you answer that question
if we were to have a good conversation?
Who are you?
All the best of mentoring I’ve experienced over all my years has begun with this question. From child to a person decades old, this is where we begin. This is where we return. This allows me, in time, to celebrate each life before me.
Who you are
is even more important
than what you do.
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