It’s no secret that a mentor can be a terrific resource as you navigate your personal career path. Some organizations assign mentors and other relationships develop naturally when like minded people hit it off. If you are your own boss, or don’t have a company to connect you with a mentor, you can and should pursue mentors on your own.

Seeking a mentor starts simply with asking for advice from a trusted professional who has been there and done that in your industry. Start by asking for information and advice and see how the relationship develops. You will know when you have made an authentic connection with someone and taken the relationship beyond colleague to personal guru.

Mentors help to improve upon your strengths and guide you along your path to success with inspiration and resources that come from experience. A mentor can also help you set and accomplish your goals. Mentors will guide you and offer practical ideas about how you might do things differently. We all need at least one mentor that can speak candidly and offer constructive criticism, even when we don’t want to hear it.

Mentors should help boost your self confidence and empower you to achieve and overcome obstacles. But don’t think that you need one perfect mentor to help you on your professional way. In reality, life is full of mentors that can advise you day-by-day, sharing important bits of wisdom incrementally over time. I encourage you to take a close look at the many people in your life and reflect on how they may actually be mentoring you right now. Build your own personal Board of Directors, your personal posse, to guide you in your career pursuits.

You can gain a wealth of support and resources with a team. Sometimes these relationships develop organically and sometimes you need to take the driver’s seat and ask others for help.  No matter which, mentors volunteer their time and experience so always show them your respect. Listen, don’t argue – and always follow-up with a personal thank you note or gesture of gratitude. The mentor relationship is powerful and valuable, so cultivate it wisely and be mindful of how you can help others and keep the circle of wisdom continuous by becoming a mentor yourself.

Having dreams and goals for the future is a wonderful way to focus on what you want in your life and career.  A wise mentor once told me it’s not enough to just think about your goals – you must write them down. Putting your wishes on paper helps you articulate things more clearly and gives you accountability for achieving your goals.

I interviewed a woman for my book who has laid out a 50-year plan for her career goal of taking a product to market that will cure cancer. Her project is massive in every respect since she must first take the cancer curing protocol through a series of clinical trials that will literally take years to accomplish. You need not carve out a 50-year plan but I urge you to take a close look at the next 90 days and write down what you want to accomplish. You can always change your mind and adjust your game plan, but dig deep to think about what you really want.

Split your 90-day goal into smaller, attainable actions and chop it into manageable baby steps. My very first book interviewee, Angela Jia Kim is the Founder of Savor the Success www.savorthesuccess.com a premium business network for women entrepreneurs. She just launched a hybrid magazine/notebook (the magbook) that will help you write down your goals, check them off, and discover solutions to realize your dreams. Her Savor magbook is a secret weapon designed to empower you to be the best you can be and focus your objectives.

This is also a good time to look to your posse, your personal Board of Directors, or resource team to assemble the masterminds that will help you reach your target. Identify your solutions instead of focusing on the problems and seek out information and help from your advisers. According to Angela – passion, plus natural ability, plus hard work, plus flow, equals results!

It’s easy to get bogged down with over ambitious to-do lists. The point of the exercise is to manage the work flow into reasonable and attainable increments. Reaching a goal is extremely gratifying so set small, attainable goals for each day and work incrementally towards the big finale. Research tells us that you are 90 times more likely to accomplish a goal when it is written down. What are you waiting for…grab a pen and write down your goals!

According to Keith Ferrazzi, a networking expert and author of: Never Eat Alone, you should build your resource team before you need it. Nothing is worse than the image of the unemployed individual desperately taking business cards at a professional conference in order to find a job. The reality is that you should start connecting with people and building your community long before you need anything.

We know that networking is not just about finding a job but building your circle of friends, mentors, and colleagues as part of your personal Board of Directors. If you are in a job now or developing a business you should be thinking ahead about the ways you want to move forward and how the people on your resource team might play a role.  Building trusting relationships takes time and earning the opportunity to ask your network for support is not instantaneous, or a given.

Former President, Bill Clinton was famous for keeping index cards with notes about each new person he met daily. His forward thinking attitude helped him build a strong network even while in college as he planned for his future political career. Known for his ability to connect with people and form a personal bond, Clinton utilized his index card system to recall important facts about people he met.

I encourage my students and clients to write notes on the back of business cards they acquire to remember specifics about people. This can be especially helpful after an interview when you are composing a thank you note.  And when it comes to stewarding your network, you should write thank you notes and follow-up with phone calls intermittently to show your sincere appreciation, even when you are not seeking their assistance.

As an experiment, start logging the new people you meet each day and jot down a few notes about them on an index card, à la Bill Clinton. At the end of the week reflect upon the number of new contacts you have made and take stock of these new members of your community. From the UPS delivery person to the new client at work, this is how you grow your network one person at a time.