Indirect Mentors Everywhere


Indirect mentors are people who do or say things that earn your admiration. There is no formal mentorship container, no contract, no "teach me your ways" agreement. Anyone can be an indirect mentor, and most indirect mentors don't know the full scope of their mentorship. Indirect mentors might be family, friends, lovers, coworkers, or people on social media.

Anyone can easily benefit from the indirect mentors in their life. When someone earns your admiration, reflect on the cause, then consider how you might nudge yourself towards making similar admirable decisions more often. Here are three examples of friends who were my indirect mentors in the past week:

  • She spoke vulnerably and owned her perspective and feelings about a sensitive topic.
  • She behaved in a manner that was right on the edge of breaking a rule at an event without asking for permission or feeling any hesitancy about her choice.
  • He spoke candidly about how he had been acting out of integrity without punishing himself over it.

As I read over my examples, exactly what I admire about each friend is clear. If the idea of indirect mentors interests you then I encourage you to take note of who earns your admiration over the next week and why. I'd love to know how it goes :^)

Years ago I made images to celebrate twenty indirect mentors I know through Twitter. Here are the three that resonate the most with me right now:

You can see all twenty images on my website or on Twitter. Thank you for reading and have a great week.


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@strangestloop

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