Determining your role models

Who do you look to, to provide you with the information, the skills and the techniques that you need to get those things done you need to. If you have been following my suggestions, you should have recruited a couple of champions by now. Those people who will support you no matter what. And hopefully you will have limited your association with those people who bring you down to their level. The next piece in the puzzle is role models. Who do you look to when you need inspiration? 

I am fortunate to know some amazing people. The people I work with are experts in their own fields and I desperately play catch up on a daily basis to make sure I don't let my end of the bargain down. And my significant other is always willing to challenge conventional thinking and is willing to try, try and try again something new in order to find out what works and what doesn't. I think it was Einstein who said "I have not failed 10,000 times, I have found 10,000 ways that will not work." My partner is like that. 

But what happens when you don't have people like that you can turn to? Who do you turn to?
 
Well I have a few suggestions for you (and you would be disappointed if I didn't):
 
Your parents - you may not agree with all they do, but they will have instilled some disciplines into your way of thinking, and acting. If your parents are smokers - then you are 100% more likely to smoke than those who do not have parents that smoke. Frightening statistic. I have one parent who does smoke and one that doesn't. Thankfully I chose the non-smoking side to fall down upon. Unfortunately I also got mum's "shape" as well !!
 
Your siblings and other relatives - not to mention those people you spend a considerable amount of time with every single day - yes your co-workers. Spend some time with them and find out what makes them the kind of people that they are. You may find things that you want to incorporate into your lives, but the other side is just as important - what don't you want to be/do "when you grow up?"
 
Colleagues - And talking of the people you work with - my first professional role was with a group of 70 other individuals - who all had a role to play in the organisation and I took the opportunity to learn from as many of them as I could, so do the same. What  knowledge do they have? Fastrack your own career by leveraging the knowledge of others. And no I don't mean stealing other people's ideas. Again - find out what worked and what didn't and make adjustments to your game plan accordingly.
 
The final point is this - what are you hoping to do and achieve? It may be, the people you need to emulate are not available to you (for whatever reason), so find as many books, articles and other writings as you can, and spend some time studying them. People like Churchill and Socrates are no longer with us, but their writings are. And people have devoted their lives to find out how other people live. So make good use of your public library. Be an avid reader of things - you never know what you will find, or be able to bring to your current life by reading someone's life story.
 
However, I will make a point here - if you make a habit of reading the tabloids and gossip mags, guess what - your point of view will be slightly off colour (so to speak) so please make sure you read more than one - at least that way you may get a more balanced view.
 
Remember what goes into your mind, is likely to come out of your mouth...