Mentoring Wisdom

It’s been several weeks since the coronavirus shutdowns began. By now, the huge changes we’ve undergone in pretty much every part of our lives have become normal and routine. I’m not sure about you but from my personal experience, it took our family a few weeks to discover our new rhythm of life.

Over the past few months, I’ve heard countless stories from clients adapting to the situation we are all currently up against. Whether it is my clients with young families juggling working from home while helping to educate their children or my grandparent clients having “Zoom” dinners with family because of the physical distancing guidelines.

The financial headlines have been extreme. From “Stocks Plunge Again on Coronavirus Fears” to “Dow closes up 2,093 points or 11% in best percent gain since 1933”. The latter headline is from March 24^th.

These are certainly unprecedented, challenging and ever-changing times.

My career in this profession started over 20 years ago. I was very fortunate to have been mentored by Ken Hawley for 10 of those years.

Over the past several weeks, amid all this chaos, I’ve found myself thinking about Ken for a few reasons. This month marks the tenth anniversary of his passing from aggressive prostate cancer. I’ve found myself leaning on some advice he provided me with very early in my career. He taught me many things but one of the most impactful was to only worry about things I can control.

The things we can control:

• Your attitude
• Your effort
• Your behaviour
• Your actions

The things we cannot control

• Other people’s opinions
• Other people’s mistakes
• Other people’s actions
• Other people’s feelings
• Adversity

Switching gears, I want to remind everyone to take a step back from all the chaos and remember what is most important. Your family and your health!

I challenge you today to reach out to a family member to just check in.

Or maybe do something today to improve your health (physical and/or mental). This can range from going for a walk (in a physically distant manner) or maybe cut out half of the news you are watching – haha.

Bye for now and enjoy the Victoria Day long weekend.