Being a teen life coach has changed completely since the new millennium. Using “old style” methods for life coaching teens is only successful with a small percentage of Millennials. (Those born between 1987 and 2000) and those who are following in their footsteps.
To find out why life coaching teens and life coaching young adults has changes so profoundly and how to bring our life knowledge to this amazing generation, we have to understand what makes them so different and then how to mentor / life coach young adults using these new techniques.
- Teens and Young Adults live online.There is no “real world” where the average teen or young adult that you would mentor feels comfortable in. Our job is get them to feel comfortable by starting where they live; online! That makes online mentoring of young adults the most powerful starting point. We shall use it to get them to be successful in the real world but we must start where they are.
- Life Coaching Teens means “piercing the target”.This is one of Ken Rabow’s favorite methods. If you are life coaching teens and life coaching young adults you should be aware of the fact that whatever you talk about, i.e. Sputnik (no, it never comes up in conversation , as you mention the name, your Millennial has opened 12 different tabs on the subject. Millennials have a very wide knowledge base with not much depth (outside of what really, really interests them) and don’t know how to take the things they have profound knowledge into any other part of life.Why? Because when you see every possibility, it’s impossible to start as it means you aren’t doing the other 11 choices. This is why we teach “piercing the target”. Just starting little things and learning to stick their metaphoric toes in the water.
- Communication with adults is fraught with judgments and dealing with the parts of life that suck.If you want to be a teen life coach, you have to start focusing on their goals and not what isn’t working. Too many people live their lives by their labels: ADD, Anxiety; ODD; Aspie, etc. We are not our labels. When you train with Mentors Professional Workshop to become a professional Mentor for young adults, you will learn the GCS. How to create goals, challenges to those goals and the first sign-posts of success. We amplify what we focus on. MPW will educate you on life coaching teens and life coaching young adults towards success. You will become a non-judgmental ally in their hero’s journey and you will learn how to re-introduce the best of these young adults to their families, teaching all of them great new ways to communicate.
If you are interested in going past Mentoring young adults and want to become a professional Mentor, learning a proven approach that helps each client build up towards personal success, read through this site cover-to-cover (so to speak) and then contact Ken for a consultation.
Your journey to life coach teens and life coach young adults and their families begins here.
Why Become a Mentor for Young Adults?
So many Boomers and Gen x-er’s are searching for meaning in their work life and yet, so many Millennials find work meaningless. Becoming a professional mentor for young adults is a great way to do that and also really help this amazing Millennial generation reach their potential. I believe that these young adults have what it takes to change this world for the better in every way. It is our generation who have let them down and then accused them of being self-centered, slackers who sleep and slave away on their superciliously synced smart phones. (I’m in an “s” mood today ☺)
While there is so much good to be had in mentoring young adults, there are two sides to even that coin. With all good things there is yang to the yin, the blessing and the curses (B’s and C’s) that one could never have imagined when starting upon this journey. Having been a mentor for young adults for over 16 years, I thought sharing my experiences on the B’s and C’s of this would probably work... but first….
Here are some thoughts from one of my newest Mentors In Training, Sean, about what he was seeking in becoming a mentor for young adults
“Hey Ken! I really am looking for a change in my life. Call it turning 50,. or a mid-life crisis. Call it being fed up with not feeling like I do something worthwhile for human-kind. Hell, call it a person being fed up with their corporate job.
I want to feel like I make a difference. Like I've helped someone. Leave a mark ... even if it's only in a small way.
All this being said ... I still have four mouths to feed, a mortgage, car payment and three kids to hopefully put through university. And currently I make a good living doing what I do (even if it is from behind a cubicle wall) So making a change is scary. Naturally.
No doubt you are a charismatic, well-spoken, polished individual that seemingly loves what he does and teaches. Can I take some of what you have and make it work for me?”
The answer: Yes! The people who have become professional Mentors were able to take what they were taught and make it their own. They do it part-time in the first year after training so they can slowly transition into a successful mentoring practice to either augment their current income or create a full time Mentoring career.
The B’s and C’s of Becoming a Mentor.
Top 5 blessings of being a mentor for young adults:
5. It’s all done on Skype, so your pits and mouth can be stinky and you’ll still seem like you know what you are talking about. (but take pity on your dog’s olfactory receptors)
4. No traffic jams! No travel time to work! Just get your computer on, fire up Skype and Robert’s your father’s brother.
3. Imagine! Millennials sharing their thoughts; completely and totally honestly, thanks to the judgment-free environment you create.
2. You learn the coolest things about what’s happening in the connected world; people; songs; apps. Hey, I heard “Badger, badger, badger, badger” way before my any of my friends did... if they ever did.
1. After being with you as their Mentor for six to eighteen months, they graduate and know how to deal with anything life will throw at them with grace, wisdom and unflinching eyes on the prize.
Top 5 Curses of Being a Mentor for Young Adults:
5. As a result of being on Skype all the time, with no clients to sneeze or pass gas in your general direction, you are more susceptible to the various colds and flus when you do venture out. (Who knew those kids sneezing
on the teacher in class were doing them a favor?)
4. The internet service providers of the world seem to have it out for Skypers. It can be frustrating sometimes… frozen images… missed words occurring most often when you absolutely need to hear every word your client is sharing.
3. Imagine! Millennials sharing their thoughts; completely and totally honestly, thanks to the judgment-free environment you create. (This is a blessing and a curse.)
2. Try explaining Badger to your “grown-up” friends or why (name of funky group) really is cool. (sigh… caught between two generations).
The Kicker:
1. After being with you for six to eighteen months, they graduate. You are sort of Mary Poppins for f**ked up kids. You heard them. They listened and then they must leave the Skype-nest. It is a sad time and a happy time.
This is what I live for in every hour that I mentor young adults and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
Finally, I would like to emphasize, that it is such an honor to earn their trust and help guide them to their inner greatness. Helping the families go from major daily scream-fests to the truly loving relationships they were meant to have is simply icing on the cake.
In conclusion: surrender to your special skills of sharing the secrets of success to Millennials and start your sojourn from a snooze-fest existence to inspiring slackers.
Join us!
Learn to Mentor Millennials.
They are our greatest hope.
We need them.
They need you.
Interested in mentoring Millennials? Check out www.MentorsProfessionalWorkshop.com
Know a Millennial in need of mentoring? Check out www.MentoringYoungAdults.com
Hello. My name is Ken Rabow. I have been mentoring young adults and their families since 2001.
My goal is to train people who love mentoring young adults and give them the tools to become a Professional Mentor.
What's the difference? It takes a special person to take on the challenge of mentoring young adults but it takes a system to create a whole life approach to helping young adults and their families truly succeed on all levels:
Scholastically, Relationally, Emotionally and with a true belief in oneself.
This is what the World Wide Youth Mentoring (WWYM) Inc system does.
This is the system I have created over the past 20+ years.
In my work mentoring young adults, I have worked with countless young people who have made great changes for the better in their lives. Changes where they were responsible for the successful outcome. These successes are now part of who they are and how the see themselves and shall help guide them in whatever endeavors they take on in life. Mentoring young adults become something that empowered not only those I helped but myself as well.
The goal of this Workbook is to help you become such a mentor to young adults.
If you follow this process (in tandem with my book: The Slacker’s Guide To Success) you will find yourself helping young people to find their personal greatness. I cannot think of a nobler task or one that I consider to be more honourable to be part of.
Most systems of “repairing young adults” that I encounter seem to be focused on the symptoms.
They use their challenges to define the whole of the person. Statements such as: “I’m ADHD”. Hello, my name is Skeeter and I’m an alcoholic” "I can't do that, I have been diagnosed with anxiety". “I’m such a (fill in the blank)” ring throughout the land.
To those who spend so much time on their symptoms, I would suggest you think of the following: We amplify what we focus on, in word, thought and action. The more frequently we are defining ourselves by what we lack, the more we allow our inner thoughts to validate our beliefs in our million micro-decisions of the day.
We cannot underestimate the amount of people who are in denial about their personal foibles.
I am not suggesting self-delusion as the road to success. I encourage you to (and by extension the young adults you mentor) to “own” their challenges as well as their strengths, but please do not let these young adults be defined by their challenges.
Let me share with you my belief, my mindset and my intention for mentoring based on my Mentoring of Young Adults since 2001:
Every young person I have ever met has the ability to be successful in every way of their lives. That may seem like a bold statement but the truth is, evolutionarily speaking, if you are alive, then you are doing something right. You must also come from a line of people who were able to thrive. The DNA of success is built into you. It just may present itself in a way that doesn’t fit into a standard mold. What may seem like the opposite of success may simply be indicators to look for a different way, to find your own personal way to succeed. For many generations mentoring young adults was a right of passage but what way can one use now?
The Slacker’s Guide to Success is one such way.
It works by building up a person’s belief in themselves in quiet daily tasks that help build character. It is in the small daily tasks one does away from public view that we build up our own faith in ourselves and it is these same small tasks that have been taken away from this generation.
Shining shoes? – Velcro!
Tying your shoe laces – More Velcro!
Cutting the lawn? – no more lawns – robot lawn mowers – or paid help.
Washing the dishes? Dishwashers!
Vacuuming – Roomba!
Getting the mail (what’s mail? Oh! That stuff before texting!)
Spelling (duh … spellcheck!)
Multiplication tables (do calculators have those?)
Walking the dog (did kids ever really walk the dog?)
Homework (isn’t that what tutors are for?)
I won’t go on. It’s too depressing. 🙁
What daily tasks will inspire young people to learn self-discipline, build character and belief in oneself?
Since the “old ones” are gone. They need to be replaced with new ones. (Not that new):
1: Self-reflection.
2. Exercise.
3. Creativity
4. Generativity.
I will elaborate on these in chapter one.
Although I say that each person has the potential for success and that I have found my system to be highly effective, it does not mean that I work with every person who comes to interview with me or that they all stay the course and succeed using the World Wide Youth Mentoring system.
When parents seek my help for a troubled teen or young adult, they often find me through one of my articles at Huffington Post, or from our sister website for Mentoring Young Adults.
Once we have determined that this system could be a good fit for a potential client (ages 12 to 28) we then begin the first 8 sessions which will determine if the program truly works for the new client. If you are trained in our system, you will eventually reach my success ration, of those I accept on the sixth session of 95%!
What does this mean for the young adults?
It means that each one has in them the seeds for success and the challenge is to find the proper system for that particular person. Often, when someone I have worked with has risen above their addictions and gone back to school and succeeded well (very often for the first time) I will get referrals from friends. The chance of my particular system being right for that friend at that particular time is 50/50. The determining factor is; is this person ready?
Now, let’s talk about you. What you need to bring to this system and how you can determine when your “client” is ready for your mentoring.
Who knows your child better than their parents? They do. They may not know it or share all of it with them but a parent's understanding of their child is based on history. More than likely, theirs is about right now and tomorrow. The past is often the same place where broken toys reside. Rich and meaningful at one time, but now it is mainly of use for stubbing toes and tripping us up.
It is in the future and the now that we must begin the Hero's Journey of Success with our clients. This is how we being mentoring young adults.
Stay tuned for part two!
Are you interested in Professionally Mentoring Young Adults? Check out our home page on mentoring young adults by clicking here.
Know someone in need being professionally mentored? click here for our sister site.
The Mentor’s Workbook is a complete program to help young people find their success in today’s world. The work is based on the mentoring I have done with young clients since 2001, helping people who felt unable to succeed find their personal power. To start the mentor’s workbook, I recommend beginning with the information below. You can delve further into the subject(s) at the links at the bottom of this page. Enjoy! Ken
What is a “Mentor”?
Mentor was a character in the Homer’s mythic poem the Odyssey. Mentor, the son of Heracles and Asopis, was a friend of Odysseus who put Mentor charge of his son Telemachus. Later on Athena visited Telemachus disguised as Mentor and helped encourage him to go on his hero’s quest. So, the father had sent for Mentor to help Telemachus and Athena acted as Mentor, both to help the young man find himself.
As Mentors, we take on the task set out by Odysseus, the parent, to guide, help and encourage our Telemachus, our mentee, towards their hero’s journey.
To this end, I have created a Mentor’s Credo: The values that will guide our process of mentoring.
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The Mentor’s Credo
1. Mentors serve the client/protégé/Telemachus/mentee
2. Never leave a stumbling block before the blind
3. A truth told before its time is worse than a lie
4. A Mentors goal is to witness the Telemachus’ greatness and guide them on their path towards it.
5. The only gifts of value are those earned
6. Earned gifts are equal whether they are small or great
7. When in doubt, honor the small gifts earned
8. Be humble
9. Enter the Telemachus’ world as a curious bystander
10. You are not their friend. You are their Mentor
11. Mentoring is best done at a distance.
You have succeeded when they leave.
Want to read about The Slacker’s Guide to Success? click here
