HAVING A CAREER MENTOR IS VITAL FOR YOUR CAREER GROWTH, FULFILLMENT AND HAPPINESS.
I didn’t realize what I was missing in my career and why I’d truly been really unhappy for months, until I met my mentor. A career mentor is someone that provides you with vast learning opportunities, takes the time to see your work output and advocates for you.
I realized in my career, I’ve had people come in and out that were helpful in certain areas and all vital for where I am now. I’ve had someone teach me how to logically triage operational issues in Marketo. I’ve had someone teach me Salesforce to the extent that I was our sole admin at my previous job. I’ve had someone teach me the vital foundation of working with and serving a sales team [in demand gen marketing, sales is your customer].
I’ve had a lot of career advice from both strong women and amazing men that has truly built the foundation to a career that I truly love, feel driven by and feel fulfilled by.
What I didn’t have up until now was someone that cared enough about me and saw enough in me, to truly advocated for me and prioritize me.
When you really think about it, lacking someone that invests in Y-O-U, who acknowledges and appreciates how hard you’re working your ass off, provides insightful and constructive feedback for you to learn and rewards and advocates for you.. diminishes your career growth, happiness and drive.
When you find that mentor, whether someone in your community, at work or in your network – you feel appreciated, challenged and ultra driven.
My hope for you in 2019 is that you are able to seek and find a career mentor that inspires you, teaches you and rewards you for your work ethic.
WITH COMMUNICATION, TONE IS EVERYTHING.
Oftentimes, it’s not the words we choose, but more so the tone we use to communicate them. Our intentions can be innocent, but if you communicate it with a nasty, mean tone, sharp.. you get no where, but hurting people around you.
I had someone this year constantly have a nasty tone with me and many other people. While the requests and end game were fine, the way the person got there wasn’t right.
As adults, we are responsible not only for our words, but how we make others feel with them. Taking the extra 10 seconds to think through your tone will be worth not hurting loved ones and friends and coming off nasty. You can get to the same goal, it just may take a little bit more effort to get there politely and it’s worth it.
“WE MAKE OUR FRIENDS; WE MAKE OUR ENEMIES, BUT GOD MAKES OUR NEIGHBOR”
I’m not sure how we got blessed enough to have such amazing neighbors, but S and I truly treasure it.
We chose location over land, so we are in pretty close quarters with a couple people. We knew from the get-go that whoever our neighbors were could make our lives very great, simply coexisting or bad lol.
With my dad and in laws living in different states than us, it’s so nice to have the sense of security that the people who surround you [literally] care for you and will always lift a helping hand for something minor or in an emergency.
And just in any relationship, it’s so important to reciprocate it. My dad is the most giving person I’ve ever met and I’ve seen many people take advantage of his heart and willingness to help, so maybe that’s why I make sure we always go out of our way to show we appreciate our neighbors.
While I may not be the most helpful when needing a tool or moving furniture, I certainly can show my appreciation in different ways like baking up sweets some goodies from the heart, delivering them some homemade meatballs or just taking the time to chat about their week.
If you don’t know your neighbors, try baking up some goodies or a gifting a bottle of wine to extend the olive branch!
OUR BEST FRIENDS ARE OUR PEOPLE.
Seriously. My dad reminds me of this all the time. S and I are just so lucky to have such thoughtful, genuine, AMAZING best friends. I literally brings tears to my eyes because I’m such a sap.
Every person from our bridal party and their loved ones will always be part of our family. My dad has always said, family isn’t always blood. This has always been in the back of my mind and boy, the older I get the more I get it!
Whether an entire coastline away or 40 minutes across the city – we have people that love us and that we love, endlessly. We’d do anything for them and they’d do anything for us.
While I’ve always been so appreciative of the irreplaceable friendships we’ve grown, with every year that grows we love our people even more than I could have imagined.
ALWAYS PACK FACIAL EXFOLIATOR FOR COLORADO.
Lol. Seriously. Why did I travel to Denver so many times last year and kick myself every time for not packing a facial exfoliator?
The elevation isn’t your skin’s best friend, especially if you lean dry. After 24 hours, I’m dreaming of revitalizing my face with this exfoliator.
If you’re headed to Colorado or any high elevation location, pack that exfoliator!
SOMETIMES THE MOST LUCRATIVE, DOESN’T FULFIL YOU.
We’ve all heard “money doesn’t bring happiness”. I got a taste of this in 2018!
This year, I took the leap of faith to try a new business tactic. Diversifying any income you have is smart. Relying solely on one job or one income stream makes you vulnerable. While I have three streams of income for my blog, I diversified this to four in 2018.
While this stream is lucrative and has the potential to be enormous, it was so draining. I found myself driving so much effort into it, ultimately other areas of my blog that made me H-A-P-P-Y were put to the back burner. I burned myself out.
When you have a full time career, you have to optimize your side hustle time strategically. If not, you end up working away on something you aren’t passionate about and at that rate – what’s the point?
While I’m grateful for what I learned through this new venture, I ultimately realized that it does not fulfill me – no matter how large the income is.
NO MATTER HOW ‘SIMPLE’ THE HOUSE PROJECT SEEMS, ALWAYS CALL DAD.
My dad is the best. He’s my best friend. He’s one of the only people I can truly count on.
And he’s super knowledgeable in anything home related! He not only had his own business building houses when I was younger, but also built both houses I grew up in.
The house I lived in until I was two was actually a very old home that he lifted, reset and gutted.. at 19! People literally laughed at his face for even buying the house, but after seeing what he turned it into they weren’t laughin’ no more! Then he bought land in the next town over, had it cleared and built the house I lived in my whole life from hand.
So even though my husband and I bought a new build, there are projects we want to do to make it our own and things that come up that need fixin’. Even with something as “simple” as getting a outlet back onto the wall, our plan was overcomplicating it.
My dad is such a hub of knowledge, that being able to chat through projects big and small with him and learn from him is something both S and I are so thankful for. S is quite the handyman and I’m so proud whenever he finishes a project 😉 hehe!
LOVE WILL ALWAYS BE MY FAVORITE.
I will always love, love. Give me a love story and a box of tissues and I’m one happy girl. What’s better than hearing a love story? Witnessing a chapter of it.
This year, I stood by the side of two amazing women as they married the loves of their lives. One married one of my best guy friends and it was just so beautiful.
Both days were just so special and I’m forever honored to stand by them, not only on their wedding day, but for every beautiful or challenging life chapter.
In 2019, S and I will stand by our Haydie and Taryn’s side and I am just so excited.
NO CONNECTION, MOMENT OR SMILE IS WORTH MISSING OVER STARING AT YOUR PHONE.
This year I disconnected from social media, a lot. I learned a bit more about work life balance. I learned that feeling fulfilled has nothing to do with social numbers and stats. I learned that I can have a successful business without having a phone stuffed in my face 24/7.
Getting so caught up in work or technology is easy. Finding a balance in this day of age is needed for mental health and for developing REAL relationships.
While I have a business that revolves around the online world, I’m not perfect nor do I have the balance mastered, but I encourage you to think, will be staring at Instagram for 30 minutes instead of spending quality time with my family be what I’m proud to reflect on or feel fulfilled by in one year, five years? Put the phone down and live in the moment!
As always, thank you so much for coming to read my little nook of the internet. Over the last year, my analytics show that tens of thousands of women come to my blog each week and what a gift it is to provide you a little getaway while drinking your morning coffee [or wine if you’re a night owl :-)]. I appreciate each and every one of you and cannot wait to see where A Mix of Min goes in 2019!
What are some learning you had in 2018? Xo Mindy
