July 29th \Mentor Diary, Arif Damani.

After a long tiring day at the theme park, I finally find myself in a welcoming seat on the coach with what I think are a few precious moments to myself; none of the campers around me are speaking loudly, or eager to relay their own unique news from the trip, or asking me questions about the possibility of playing football in planet time… but that immediately means that there are some campers around who are sitting quietly, not speaking to anyone, their thoughts to themselves. A perfect opportunity for some quality mentoring.

These opportunities never present themselves, they need to be identified, found and used. This year’s camp in my opinion has called upon the skills of careful vigilance and being totally on top of time-keeping, organisation and awareness.

I feel that this year I’ve learned a lot more about myself, especially my interactions with and habits when it comes to working in a group and team dynamics. This year I find myself as one of the “experienced” “seasoned” mentors who have the insight into how to be a mentor; charged with the undercover task of subtly preening the new mentors, introducing them to the practical role of being a mentor.

However this year I’ve found myself almost trying to protect the new mentors, taking on unnecessary tasks and duties so the other mentors are comfortable. Obviously, this mentality and habit is absolutely draining on myself, but it’s also de-motivating to the team; and it took some well-directed, well-targeted feedback for me to be made aware of this destructive flaw of mine. I thought I was being superbly helpful by taking on extra, but then had the gall to complain that I was doing all the work.

“Why do you see the speck of dust that is in your brother’s eye, but don’t consider the beam that is in your own eye”