In my opinion, it is very important for women, particularly women of color, to actively seek out and work with a mentor (or someone with more knowledge, experience, or background) who can help guide us towards our vision of our future selves.
I think we all need somebody else to help us analyze, to help us improve, and to provide an external point of view, because if you are constantly in your own mind, it's difficult to get a different perspective. Ideally your "mastermind" individual or group includes many different types of advisors, each with different personalities so you may really "vet" an idea thoroughly.
My partner and I have an advisor that we've been working with to prioritize, assess, measure, and evaluate different areas of our business. Our advisor acts as someone "out of the box" who can see things as a more logical and more process-oriented person (we are all gut- and intuition- and emotion-based, so the thinking that gets us into a particular situation will not be the thinking that gets us out of that situation)
(If you're doing what you've been doing, you're gonna get what you've been getting!)
I have also been having weekly appointments with Rob Seidenspinner of Sage Circle, a personal and professional coach who has excellent listening skills and is holding me to bringing my values and my behavior more into alignment. We use a process of "inquiry" (asking) and reflection (thinking, meditating) to get back to core mission and vision.
As I said, I highly recommend engaging a coach or someone who can serve in this role. www.thecoaches.comAlso, recognize that coaching is not therapy: What's the Difference between Coaching and Therapy?
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