Adults Have All Done it – So What About the Youth?

“I know what I’m doing – I don’t need to ask for help!”  You’ve been there, admit it.  We all have.  But for those of us who’ve found joy and purpose in life, we’ve done the opposite MUCH more often.  We’ve learned to swallow our pride and ask for answers we don’t have, in order to reap positive results and avoid making costly decisions.

Mentoring is the act of teaming older with younger for the purpose of transferring needed wisdom.  Younger people are in a stage of examining many views to establish identity and values, while the mentor is available to offer perspective and modeled values.

Benjamin Franklin spoke to this long ago, saying, “There are two ways to acquire wisdom; you can either buy it or borrow it. By buying it, you pay the full price in terms of time and cost to learn the lessons you need to learn. By borrowing it, you go to those men and women who have already paid the price to learn the lessons and get their wisdom from them.”

If we’re smart, we seek out mentors to borrow guidance in all areas of life.  But, what if we are the older and wiser?  If we’re loving and unselfish, we will all find a younger person who needs encouragement and support – knowing we have paid the price ourselves and can lend them wisdom gained.

More than ever, kids are looking for those kind of adults who are authentic and caring, ready to offer anything we can to help them discover their path forward to joy and purpose.  Let’s be those people!   

Join the FORGE movement today as we connect generations to build the future.