A piece written for the ORT JUMP programme in 2013...
One of the first mentors I ever had used to say: “your journey in life is of your own making. You alone can shape it. If you are passionate about what you want, if you know how to make it work and if you have the dedication to see it through tough times, then you can achieve anything you want.”
I’m paraphrasing of course, but there isn’t a week that goes by where words spoken to that effect don’t echo in the back of my mind. Even today, this idea greatly influences the manner in which I approach my challenges and they still fill me with confidence and belief.
Such is the effect that a mentor can have on those who seek their guidance. I know this first-hand and I have seen, on so many occasions, what can be achieved when investing time and effort in others is seen as both a privilege and a responsibility.
However, spending my first year as a mentor myself has opened my mind to something else that is truly remarkable: the insatiable ability of school students to dream big. While I only left school roughly 11 years ago, I am beginning to see that all too quickly we replace these dreams with their smaller versions – or what we consider to be more realistic.
But it is precisely in the realm of the unrealistic that the magic happens. Worlds have been turned by the power of dreaming big.
No matter how one personally defines success, it always requires imagination to carve out a path towards achieving it and so too it demands determination in order to keep your balance along the bumpy way. Yet when someone combines imagination and drive with knowledge, then they have the potential to achieve truly wondrous things. This is why I
believe mentoring to be so vitally important.
In this particular programme, mentoring is a way of supplementing the bold and vibrant enthusiasm that these students have, untarnished by doubt or cynicism, with the experience that they understandably lack – and the knowledge that experience brings.
This year, I have been extremely lucky to have shared the time of two very talented and imaginative students. Both have passion and ambition, and both are keenly aware of what is truly important to them. I hope that our conversations will have given them some confidence to go forward and achieve the goals that they have set for themselves. I am
in no doubt that if they believe in themselves, they will go far.
All mentors were once beginners, but by having stood on the shoulders of giants, it is now on their shoulders that this next
generation will steady themselves. And it is from the experiences of their mentors, that these mentees will garner the strength and courage to dream big and to believe that they truly can “achieve anything they want”.
For more information on ORT JUMP, please see www.ortjump.co.uk
One of the first mentors I ever had used to say: “your journey in life is of your own making. You alone can shape it. If you are passionate about what you want, if you know how to make it work and if you have the dedication to see it through tough times, then you can achieve anything you want.”
I’m paraphrasing of course, but there isn’t a week that goes by where words spoken to that effect don’t echo in the back of my mind. Even today, this idea greatly influences the manner in which I approach my challenges and they still fill me with confidence and belief.
Such is the effect that a mentor can have on those who seek their guidance. I know this first-hand and I have seen, on so many occasions, what can be achieved when investing time and effort in others is seen as both a privilege and a responsibility.
However, spending my first year as a mentor myself has opened my mind to something else that is truly remarkable: the insatiable ability of school students to dream big. While I only left school roughly 11 years ago, I am beginning to see that all too quickly we replace these dreams with their smaller versions – or what we consider to be more realistic.
But it is precisely in the realm of the unrealistic that the magic happens. Worlds have been turned by the power of dreaming big.
No matter how one personally defines success, it always requires imagination to carve out a path towards achieving it and so too it demands determination in order to keep your balance along the bumpy way. Yet when someone combines imagination and drive with knowledge, then they have the potential to achieve truly wondrous things. This is why I
believe mentoring to be so vitally important.
In this particular programme, mentoring is a way of supplementing the bold and vibrant enthusiasm that these students have, untarnished by doubt or cynicism, with the experience that they understandably lack – and the knowledge that experience brings.
This year, I have been extremely lucky to have shared the time of two very talented and imaginative students. Both have passion and ambition, and both are keenly aware of what is truly important to them. I hope that our conversations will have given them some confidence to go forward and achieve the goals that they have set for themselves. I am
in no doubt that if they believe in themselves, they will go far.
All mentors were once beginners, but by having stood on the shoulders of giants, it is now on their shoulders that this next
generation will steady themselves. And it is from the experiences of their mentors, that these mentees will garner the strength and courage to dream big and to believe that they truly can “achieve anything they want”.
For more information on ORT JUMP, please see www.ortjump.co.uk
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