Episode 012 Mastering Mentorship through Adversity with Doug Stewart

Mastering Mentorship through Adversity with Doug Stewart: Can
you think of something you can do today that will make your life
worse? What about something that will make your life better?
 Now, are you willing to do what it will take to make your
life better? Or will you be a victim?

Our guest today, Doug Stewart, is no stranger to living a life
as a victim. It wasn’t until he was in college that his whole
mindset changed. During his school years he was told that he had a
speech impediment, ADHD, and narcolepsy. He couldn’t write his
alphabet until the age of 11. He had one person believe in him and
that changed everything.

Doug’s college experience was different than his grade school
experience; they actually expected him to perform in school in
order to play sports. When he was in grade school, many teachers
allowed him to get by because of all his disabilities that were
listed in his folder. His 1.4 GPA in college landed him in the
office of his academic advisor, Sarah. Sarah is that one person who
believed in him.

When Doug went into her office that day, the words she spoke to
him changed his life completely. She knew he wasn’t living up to
his potential. She said to him “you know what your problem is? Your
problem is that you’re a victim of your own thinking.” Sarah made
him come into her office every day so she could help him in his
classes. Sarah would read his homework out loud to him and he was
to draw picture of what it reminded him of. After a couple of
weeks, he became more comfortable in his classes. He was
remembering the things she read to him and the pictures he drew. He
started making higher grades on his tests. At the end of the
semester he went to look at his grades and he had an “alarm clock
moment”.

An “alarm clock moment” is that feeling you get when your alarm
didn’t go off and you are going to be late to something important.
He felt that he was behind and he was going to miss out on LIFE. He
had missed so much in his life already and he couldn’t wait any
longer. He now knew that he could learn and his disabilities were
not going to hold him back. Doug started to find ways to develop
himself and he needed a mentor to do that. He actually needed many
mentors because he was behind in all areas of his life.

Think for a moment if you had a boardroom inside of your mind.
Who would you have sitting at your round table? Who would you want
to pour into your life? Stephen talks about his board members and
they are all people who want to help him succeed and people who he
wants to help succeed. Doug talks about all his board members and
all the mentors he has in his life. He gives us 5 and a half types
of mentors that we should look for. And yes, that is half of a
mentor that we should look for in life.

The first mentor we should have at our table is a “street view
mentor”. This mentor is someone who is wearing the same jersey as
us, similar perspective and same mission. Doug gave an example of
his wife for this mentor. She has the same perspective as he does
and she is on the same mission.
The next mentor to look for at our table is a “world view
mentor”. This mentor is someone who has a different perspective as
us but still the same mission. Doug’s example of his world view
mentor is a couple from his hometown, Raleigh, NC, by the names of
Tom and Molly. They are a couple that sit above his perspective and
can help him miss the road blocks of life.
Another mentor to have sitting with us would be the
“categorical mentor”. Think of this mentor as a filing cabinet.
There are things in this mentor that we would like to replicate but
then there are also things in this mentor that we would like to
keep closed. We can pull the areas of influence out from this
mentor but we don’t have to follow everything about them.
The fourth mentor to look for is called the “stealth mentor”.
Think of this mentor as a ninja. They go unnoticed. They are people
who are mentoring us but have no idea. We are able to have a
conversation with them and an impromptu mentor session.
The “time machine mentor” is the next one on the list. These
are people that we can no longer sit down with to have a cup of
coffee but have left us resources. They have come before us and
have given us a legacy to follow through with. Doug gave the
example of his grandfather, Abraham Lincoln and Jesus. They are no
longer here on earth with us but have left us many resources that
we can gain wisdom from.
This mentor is the five and a half mentor. The half is very
important because this person needs to be part of our mentors but
shouldn’t take up as much time as the other five. This mentor is
called the “anti-mentor”. More than likely we have already thought
of a person that would be an anti-mentor of ours. It’s someone that
we want nothing to do with and wouldn’t follow anything in their
life. There are as many lessons in people we don’t want to be like
as there are in people we want to be like. We need to know what we
don’t want as much as we need to know what we want.

Having mentors in our lives are important. Something that is
just as important, if not more, is menteeship. Menteeship is the
capacity and willingness to learn from things around us. In order
to be a good mentee, we must recognize that we don’t know
everything and we must be willing to learn, not just for ourselves,
but for other people’s benefit.

Doug intentionally learns something new each day. He went from
not wanting to learn at all, to wanting to learn everything. He
lives a life of enthusiastic discovery. He is always willing and
wanting to learn.

Everyone has more potential that we all know. Our effect on the
world isn’t our responsibility. Our responsibility is to take
action and plant seeds. God will harvest those seeds. Our
adversities never feel good but the result when we overcome is
amazing! Once we start sharing our story, we are planting those
seeds.

How many lives would you change if you were to face your main
obstacle head on? How many seeds could you plant? If you are
willing to change your own life, you can change others. You too can
live a life of enthusiastic discovery! To get more information on
Doug Stewart, visit his website at dougstewart919.com.

We sincerely hope that you enjoy today’s podcast. We had a great
time getting to hear Doug’s story and how he views mentorship.
Please take the time to comment and share this with others. As you
come across questions for us and comments about Journey Principles,
email us at [email protected]. We will be having a
whole show featuring your questions, so please keep them coming! We
look forward to seeing our Journey Principles Family next time!