I’ve been thinking a lot about mentors this week.

Tara Mohr introduced me to the concept of an inner mentor in her book, Playing Big. The idea is simple: take a pause to reflect and listen as you visualize yourself in a few decades. What does your future self look like? What does future you say? Where is future you sitting and what is future you surrounded by? In doing this simple exercise, we can take stock of our intuition of where we are headed and how it clicks with our deeply held personal values.

In the course of my reflection this year, I have reached out to professional friends I’ve lost touch with, new friends, and folks who I’ve admired from afar for awhile and want to connect with in a deeper way.

I recently realized that in the act of chatting with so many about their work in climate and social impact, I unknowingly was conducting a long, sometimes uncomfortable, protracted, real-life version of the classic kids book “Are You My Mother?” by P.D. Eastman wherein I have been unknowingly starring as the baby bird in search of a mentor mama. I say this tongue-in-cheek of course. But it frustrates me that, to some, being a leader with heart translates to this baby bird perception. Note to self: reflect on if I should manage that perception differently.

The point though is that the absolute best, most invigorating, and deeply inspiring of these conversations start with a signaling of comfort and candor that allows us to quickly delve into the conversations I am learning I need most in this phase of my career — musings about motivators, triumphs, flops, weaving family and work into the arc of a career and life. People that recognize that reflection is not a weakness nor is radical honesty about said reflection. People that see the power in this moment and to whom I need not explain the bigger picture to “get it.”

I reflect on the women and men who have helped me along the way over the years. My personal Board of Directors, I like to think of them as. How giving and generous they have been with their time and friendship, and how grateful I am for it.

I reflect, too, on my own mentees. How I am eager to help but listening takes time and a years’ long relationship to really get to the good stuff. How I’m only really just getting started in this way and how I’m so glad to have the space in my schedule now to do this in earnest with startup founders.

In the end, all of this networking helps me to hone my own vision of my inner mentor: who I want to be in 20 years at the end of my career, who I am today, and all the paths that I might choose to journey between the two.