Once upon a time, people who found mentors were considered lucky. The more formalized approach to mentoring that exists today is testament to just how important a good mentor can be. As Amy Gallo wrote recently in the Harvard Business Review blog, the commonly held belief that mentoring is only for those beginning their career is a myth¹. So is the idea that mentors are limited to the world of work; in fact, mentoring is becoming increasingly relevant to our lives outside the office.

We've all heard of business mentors, but what exactly is a healthy life mentor, and why might you need one?

The answer could be more obvious than you think. Do you feel that you could be more productive both in work and in life? Do you feel as if you don't perform at the peak of your physical and mental capabilities 95% the time? Are you frustrated by your lack of tangible results in terms of achieving and maintaining an ideal work/life balance? Do you think in terms of making time for healthy living, rather than healthy living making more time for you? If your answer is "yes" to one (or all) of those questions, then you have just some of the reasons why you need a healthy life mentor!

Most people are all too familiar with feeling tired and stressed at the end of every day. Most people think this is just a normal part of daily life; most people are wrong. Everyone has the capacity to become a fitter and healthier version of themselves, and almost everyone wants to be a fitter and healthier version of themselves. Unfortunately, for many, the required efforts of this versus its perceived rewards don't spur them to take action. But a healthy life mentor can help ensure that your actions do follow your intentions. While a personal trainer might be great in the short term, and all their yelling and screaming will certainly achieve results during your sessions with them, the real key to changing your body lies in changing your mind—and that's exactly what a healthy life mentor can help you do.

Most people know about the commonly touted benefits of being fit and healthy: you can reduce your risk of chronic diseases, have more energy, sleep better, and avoid dying young (that one's kind of important). But for most people, these long-term benefits are too intangible to be a real source of motivation. Sure, if your doctor says you'll be dead in three months unless you lose some weight, it can kind of spur you on; unfortunately, for many, even that kind of alarm bell isn't loud enough to effect real change.

So what does push your buttons? What will motivate you to begin a healthy life journey and, more importantly, keep you traveling down that path forever? Whether it's money, love, productivity, creativity, career, or just knowing how good you can finally feel when you achieve optimum health and fitness, a healthy life mentor can help motivate and inspire you every day—and in a variety of ways. Most people already know the principles of how to live a healthier life (eat better and exercise more)—they just don't know how to keep on doing it, day in and day out, and still enjoy themselves.

A healthy life mentor can empower you to devise your own strategies for a healthy lifestyle that consider your physical, emotional, psychological, intellectual, and practical needs, allowing you to fully engage with healthy living rather than just approaching it as something that's separate from the rest of your life. A healthy life mentor can help you recognize your strategies for success and teach you how to apply them to healthy, balanced living in the long term. A healthy life mentor can help challenge you, push you to the limits of your growth and allow you to respond as deeply and as fully as you can.

With a healthy life mentor, there will be no more "I'm on a diet" or "I must exercise". Let's face it: we're getting more and more diet and exercise plans to follow, but the world is still getting fatter and fatter. Maybe all those plans are missing the point. Maybe a rigid system, a strict regime, a "one size fits all" approach, isn't the answer. Furthermore, the majority of naturally slim, fit, and healthy people don't follow specific plans in relation to their weight—they just know how to effortlessly integrate healthy living into their lives. It's like whistling: you're either born with the innate ability to do it, or you're not. But if you can't whistle, you can always learn.

Similarly, if you haven't yet managed to find a way to manage your weight, you can learn to do that too. Moreover, you can learn to do that without a plan or program. A plan or program is the equivalent of a plastic whistle—wouldn't you prefer to learn how to whistle properly, without needing to rely on an artificial instrument? Wouldn't you like the sense of empowerment, of autonomy?

A healthy life mentor shows you what's possible—the who, what, how, when, where and why—and gives you a plethora of options so that you can figure out what works best for you without being overwhelmed by "analysis paralysis", or fear of failure leading to a fear of action. Having a healthy life mentor means you can look like a gym bunny without necessarily thinking like one as well! Your mentor can help you find out all the secrets of the gym junkies without you actually having to spend hours and hours in those sweat-filled surroundings. Healthy life mentoring is all about understanding your potential to incorporate healthy living in your daily life, enabling you to really make the most of your time and energy.

The important thing to remember about healthy life mentors is that they're not going to tell you how to live your life—like any good mentor their role, as psychologist and executive coach Gavin Freeman points out, is to give you ongoing feedback and play to your strengths as you work towards achieving your aims². A good mentor is "a good developer of people" ³, and a good healthy life mentor will guide you through not just the physical process of changing your body, but the psychological and emotional challenges that such a process involves.

Even if you believe that you're pretty healthy and have actually achieved the elusive work/life balance, don't fall into the easy trap of thinking you've got it all figured out—chances are you can still benefit from the insights and guidance of a mentor. Amy Gallo points out that even the most successful and satisfied individuals never stop growing and learning⁴, and a healthy life mentor can show you new and effective ways to improve your lifestyle. Once you start, you'll soon realize that having a healthy life mentor is as essential to your board of directors as your charger is to your Iphone!

So, why is a healthy life mentor like mid-strength beer? Well, when mid-strength beer first came on the market, the initial reaction was, "why would I need that?" But today, mid-strength beer is more popular than full- or light-strength beer because people realize how much easier it can make their lives. Now, it's not a question of "why would I need it?" but "why wouldn't I need it?" Healthy life mentoring is still in its infancy in Australia. But with obesity levels up by 40% since 2004, three-quarters of FTSE 100 companies now considering employee health as an integral part of their annual reports because of it's impact of productivity and profits, work/life balance seeming ever more elusive for many, and the increased importance of mentoring generally, it's only a matter of time before healthy life mentoring becomes as popular as a cold beer on a hot summer's day. Cheers!

Sally Symonds is the author of "50 Steps to Lose 50kg . . . And Keep It Off" – the inspirational story of how she halved her weight and doubled her life. Her business specializes in helping people lose weight and attain a work/life balance in time-efficient ways via its extensive range of resources, online healthy life club and individual mentoring sessions.

Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 07 3278 4785 / 0417 727 625

Sally Symonds is a member of the Australian Women's Mentoring Network. Visit Sally's AWMN profile (login required).

1. http://blogs.hbr.org/hmu/2011/02/demystifying-mentoring.html
2. http://www.hrdaily.com.au/nl06_news_selected.php?act=2&stream=All&selkey=1323&hlc=2&hlw=women+more+hungry+for+mentoring&s_keyword=women+more+hungry+for+mentoring&s_searchfrom_date=1136034000&s_searchto_date=1298897940&s_pagesize=4&s_word_match=2&s_articles=All&stream=All
3. http://blogs.hbr.org/hmu/2011/02/demystifying-mentoring.html 
4. http://blogs.hbr.org/hmu/2011/02/demystifying-mentoring.html