How We Rise

We Rise by Lifting Others

Point to Ponder:
Is there someone you can mentor so they can learn and grow based on your life experience?

by Neissa Brown Springmann

In last week’s journal ‘Arm Yourself with the Best,’ I referenced one of my mentors who eight years ago consistently lent me his valuable time by listening to my vision for what would become iGnite. Aside from Russell and my father, he is my best male friend, and oddly we struck a friendship fourteen years ago when I was a college graduate. Upon meeting him, I was young with limited life experience and was making plans to move to New York City where “the real movers and shakers” lived- ha! Needless to say, I wasn’t looking for or wanting to be mentored, but thankfully he knew what most twenty-two-year-olds don’t know: life was about to get very hard and confusing, and I was on the verge of being chewed up and spit out by my idealistic views. He had also lived and worked in New York City for many years and knew exactly what I would soon be up against, yet he never squashed my dreams of becoming someone “important.” Instead, he lifted me up, provided me with unconditional guidance, great information and connected me with very helpful people.

My good friend and mentor is twenty-five years older than me, has lived and worked all over the world and has infinite amounts of wisdom that I love to soak up. And because he took interest in being my mentor at a very young age, I’ve reaped the immense value and benefits from having a mentor and have in fact become a mentor addict. From marriage mentors, mom mentors, professional mentors, spiritual mentors, financial mentors, style mentors, design mentors, photography mentors, gardening mentors…you name a mentor category and I have one! In fact, if you are reading this journal you likely serve as one of my mentors, as I am in constant wisdom-seeking mode. Once, I thought I knew everything — but I quickly learned that I don’t know a darn thing. I now save myself a ton of time and misery by seeking guidance and wisdom from those who have trail-blazed the path before me and frankly, are much better than me.

A few week’s ago at church, one of our pastors Dave Sunde discussed the importance of spiritual transformation and linked it to having and being a mentor. He profoundly said, “A mentor is someone who won’t let you coast or make excuses, and we don’t need a job description to be a mentor. Mentoring is seeing our whole life as an offering to invest in others’ lives, and because we don’t grow in isolation, we not only need mentors in our lives, but we also need to be a mentor.” I LOVE THAT!

Maybe there was a time when you thought having a mentor was for the young, and that one day you would outgrow the need of a mentor because you would have it all ‘figured out.’ I don’t think we are designed to ever have it all figured out, or else we wouldn’t need one another. We are designed for relationships and community, and we need the blessing of mentors to lift us up and remind us that we can do better and are made for greatness. We are also called to pay the blessing of mentorship forward and be a mentor to others. We all need lifting up, because that is HOW WE RISE!

I encourage you to check out the video below and see the life-changing impact that wise counsel and mentorship can create. (Tony Dungy also has a great book called The Mentor Leader)

Action Item:
Is there an area of your life you can benefit from having a mentor? If so, reach out and make it a point to connect with this person.

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