Last night at a great mentoring event (hosted by True Mentors) I saw a panel that worked because of lots of energy from the moderator and great sharing of mentoring experiences from the panelists. One example really stood out – and it’s something that any of us can do every day to learn through vicarious mentoring regardless of who we know.

The most energetic of the panelists, Emerson Spartz (founder of MuggleNet, the #1 Harry Potter web site, at 12 years old and became a NY Times Bestselling author at 19) shared that he was home schooled from the age of 12 on. One important things his parents made him do was to read four biographies of successful people every day. These were short, magazine length articles. While he wasn’t enthusiastic about the assignment at first in hindsight he said it was an amazing experience.

He got to be mentored vicarious and learn about amazing people. Emerson said:

“I got to immerse myself in the lives of successful people, experience the world through their eyes and “try on” their career paths.”

Which lead to me a great idea we can all put into action – starting today…

CREATE THE OPPORTUNITY TO CREATE OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOURSELF AND OTHERS

Every mentoring experience doesn’t have to happen in person.  When you consistently read about successful people you are rewiring your brain to notice patterns of success. Noticing these patterns gives you actionable ideas you can build into your daily life.

Here’s a daily way to create mentoring and learning experiences in your life, pick one or all three of these and do them once a day. This means investing only 20 – 45 minutes of time each day which could lead to an ROI of happiness and thriving experiences.

  • Read a short biography (500 – 1000 words) of one successful person that you admire; someone that is doing something you’re passionate about and might want to emulate in your personal and professional life.
  • Watch one TED Talk each day about a subject you want to learn more about or something that gets your energy level up and motivates you.
  • Set up one twenty minute phone call with someone you can learn from. Ask them to share a specific experience with you about how they overcame a problem you’re facing or created an opportunity that you would like to create.

After doing one (or all three of those) take ONE lesson that you learned and… Go put it into action. Do something different and get a result you wouldn’t have gotten otherwise.

Then go one step beyond and pay it forward immediately: Share what you learn with one other person and ask them to share with one more person.

What will YOU learn about and share today?