MENTOR.

When people ask what defines success, and how somebody could make that far in life, the answer is very simple; they had met people in their life that always pointed something that nobody wanted to hear or see. The most beautiful and at the same time most difficult thing is that mentor had experienced the same situations in the past, and he/she had implemented those values in their life first before educating everyone else.

You can’t succeed in life without a true mentor for many reasons. Most importantly, you would be satisfied in the comfort zone, and never accept a challenge by yourself because it’s not comfortable for you. When you have a true mentor, you don’t have a choice of not accepting any challenges. You are always going to be pointed out, and never will be allowed to sit comfortably in your comfort zone.

The truth is, if we would achieve our lifetime goals, we would feel accomplished. That’s normal. However, today, I see many people that stop growing after getting what they wanted; a good job, a soccer scholarship, or a dream contract. I was in the same situation, I felt accomplished, and then I came back to my mentor and have another life-changing conversation. This is only one example from tons of our talks:

⁃  Me, “I just signed a full scholarship in the United States”.

⁃  My mentor, “Great, but how many years you have left before earning a bachelor's degree?”

⁃  Me, “I should graduate in about 4 years”.

⁃  My mentor, “So, we will talk if this was a good choice when you get your degree”.

I got a full scholarship in Broward College which is 2-year school. I earned my AA degree which means nothing to me and my mentor. Two years later, I ended without any soccer scholarship since I was too old to play at NCAA D1. Even though I made the all-first team in my first season, and the all-second team in my second season, I had to take another semester break to think about what was important to me. I realized that all those accomplishments meant nothing much to me, just a piece of information regarding my work.

During my semester break, many things happened. I went for pro-tryouts and looked for other opportunities in my life. I ended taking a huge coaching opportunity at Florida Gulf Coast University and at the same time, I decided to enroll in the school as a full-time student. Regardless of how many duties I got, or how much success I can achieve, I can’t stop learning. I need to get my bachelor’s to move forward in my career. Later perhaps, I need to get my master’s to move even further. At the same time earn many coaching licenses and keep writing like I did while publishing two books or creating this blog. And so on…

What you need to understand, your mentors won’t always tell you, “Great job!” Even though that’s something you wish to hear, you are only going to face what you could do better, or what you need to do next. For some time, you might be mad at them since they demand from you that much, but after some time, you will get back to your mentor and say, “You were right, thank you!”, and then you would hear another piece of information that only motivate you to work harder.

Me, my family, my coaches, my players, my closest friends, and all other people couldn’t succeed without at least one mentor in their lives. Today, I strongly believe that mentors you meet on your path will be with you for the rest of your life. Because everything you achieve, you will dedicate them, and you will always hear back, “keep working, keep learning, keep going forward”.

One piece of advice, look for true mentors in your life if you want to achieve something special. Being able to achieve your goal and dedicate them to your mentors is very special. To hear from them something that motivates you to keep growing as a wonderful person is priceless.

I want to dedicate this blog to my biggest mentor in life, my grandfather, Leszek Paluszyński who has been always for me. I hope that some of my texts will change your life and motivate you to become a better version of yourself, as my grandfather has done for me.

Write in a comment all mentors you've met and share this text with them.

MG