Choose Whose Child you want to be?

Dear Colleagues

Greetings, and welcome to my Weekly Blog where I shall bounce some ideas to ignite your minds.

Let's start with what is Stoicism- All of us want to live a good life. Stoicism is one branch of Philosophy designed to make us more resilient ,our lives happier, more virtuous and wiser and as a result, we become better people, better parents, and better Doctors.

Stoicism has been practiced by the world's greatest leaders, Kings, Presidents, Artists, Scientists, Entrepreneurs and professionals. The foundation of stoicism came from the private diaries and personal letters of Rome's greatest emperors, playwrights, and from the lectures of a former slave turned teacher. These documents contain the greatest wisdom in the world. This ancient philosophy was practiced by the rich and poor, powerful and less influential alike in the pursuit of a good life.


One of the greatest Stoic Philosopher Seneca in his quote mentions 

"We like to say that we don’t get to choose our parents, that they were given by chance – yet, we can truly choose whose children we wish to be"

                                                                                                                              Seneca

Is the second part of the quote a bit confusing, let me explain. As we all know we cannot choose our parents, but after we are born, we can learn from a lot of other people , role models and mentors. Apart from our biological parents as mentors we can choose to have a lot of other mentors too. Its very important to have a mentor to guide us, when we face challenges, we should be able to ask the mentor how he would have handled this situation.

Professor Anders Ericson who came with the concept of 10000 Hours rule to develop expertise in any skill  when asked about importance of mentorship quotes this

“They need to talk to somebody that they really admire, a person that is doing something in a way that they would like to eventually be able to do. Have this person help you identify what it is that you might need to change in order to be able to do what that other person is doing. Interview that person about how they were able to do it, and then have that person help you identify what is it that you can’t do right now and what are the steps towards reaching that desired level of performance.”

 

How to Choose a Mentor?

A mentor is someone whose life or work has inspired you and whom you believe  will guide you take the right path. Generally, we tend to think that mentors should be accomplished seniors from our same profession, but mentor can be of any age, status and any profession. Too often we limit our thinking that mentors are senior accomplished professionals. A mentor can even be a young guy who has just started up or an uncle who works in government service. Also mentorship need not be only for professional development, you can have mentors for your finance, mentors for philosophy and so on.

Create a list of Mentors and reach out and when reaching out ask the following questions

·         Do I look up to this person?

·         Does this person have the Competency, willingness and time to guide?

·         Will this person give honest feedback and receive feedback?

·         Does this person have a mentor himself?

·         Is this mentor trustable?

·         Is he a good Listener?

·         Will he introduce you to other contacts?

·         What are the expectations for both parties?

 

Quotes on mentorship

Here are some interesting quotes on mentorship from famous personalities.

Our chief want in life is somebody who will make us do what we can.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

My mentor said, ‘Let’s go do it,’ not ‘You go do it.’ How powerful when someone says, ‘Let’s!’” — Jim Rohn 

Mentoring is a brain to pick, an ear to listen, and a push in the right direction.” — John Crosby 

Go find a mentor if you don’t have one.

If you don’t have a mentor, please go ahead and start creating a list of people whom you consider will fit to be your mentor and talk to them . You still have the choice to decide whose child you want to be.

Dr.T.Senthil

Ophthalmologist and Healthcare Entrepreneur

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