What to do when your mentors have differing opinions

This can be troublesome.

What to do when your two favorite-est mentors are telling you opposing information?

It can really throw your head for a loop.

You value each person’s advice and maybe they’ve both always been right.

Until now.

Now, you have something important to accomplish and your guys are at loggerheads with one another.

Well, they might know nothing of one another. The war is only experienced by you.

First step: Start writing

I’ve been in this spot a few times. And this IS going to happen to you.

Mentors are each unique, even within the same field.

So, whip out that notepad. Sit quietly somewhere and begin compiling a list.

Start by writing down the intended goal. Then write down all the pros and cons of doing it the way “Person A” suggests, and again for “Person B”.

Look for crossovers.

Are they saying anything that is sort of similar to what the other guy’s saying? Take note of the spots where they agree.

Write out what you see happening when you follow one or the other’s advice.

Now marry ’em! (Plan A)

This situation is a perpetual fact of life. You’re going to wholeheartedly agree with two different ideas at the same time.

You’re not wrong about anything and neither are either of your two mentors.

Given their individual merits, either plan might be perfect all by itself, regardless of which one you pick.

But you have to act in some way.

So, your job becomes one of sifting, pruning, and merging the two sets of info until you have a sensible working plan.

I do this all the time. It’s not always easy. You may have to lean more heavily toward one plan or the other.

This might fly in the face of your sense of loyalty. Don’t let that hamper the process.

Sift. Prune. Merge.

This may take awhile and involve heavy pondering before completion

I was once told polar opposite ways to go by two men who were both deeply vested in my success but not in control of it.

Both were helping me to shape my path and I felt very strongly about both. Neither had ever let me down.

In this case, Plan B had to be enacted.

Plan B: Do ’em both

I did the three steps mentioned above and still remained confused.

I ended up deciding to build two separate entities that allowed me to explore both sides of this equation.

One turned into this site. The other turned into other businesses.

One is me. The others are what I do. You will soon learn of them as all reach completion.

So, I’m sorry this part can’t be made easier.

But power through and you will pop out the other side a changed person.

(As evidenced by my 2015 update!)

If nothing else, choose the easiest route

The key is to not stall out. Pick one over the other or combine the best parts of both but keep running.

Keep moving forward.

Too much pondering leads to nothing but more pondering.

The photographer of this post’s featured photo: Chris Barbalis