Last night, I had a beer with Curt Rosengren, whom I met originally over a year ago, and who was one of the primary people who first encouraged me to start blogging. Curt calls himself a “Passion Catalyst” and has been self-employed as a career coach for quite some time now. When I last met him, I was still slaving away at Microsoft and wishing of day’s like today, where I am at home working on my goals, and making it the primary focus of my day. It was great to see Curt again, and show him how far I’ve progressed since we last met, and how much closer I am to living my ideal life.

Curt has recently started making the move from a personal career coach to a professional speaker so that he can spread his message to more people in a shorter amount of time. Curt writes for Worthwhile Magazine, and has graciously offered to put me in touch with the editors Kevin Salwen and Anita Sharpe, both hotshots from the Wall Street Journal who broke off a few years ago to start their magazine.

Curt has some great ideas about my career path, and I look forward to keeping in touch with him. I gave him a short demonstration on memory, and the rundown on what I teach when I speak professionally. I also told him of Niels and my idea to start a magazine. Niels has already blogged about it, but we are dubbing it “The Social Man Magazine” for now, and are working on the business plan. A synopsis of the idea will arrive shortly.

In other news, I was happy to arrive home from Diabetes camp (where I was volunteering for the last week) to find a packet from Dr. Ken Higbee with all his research articles on memory and mnemonics. I am very grateful to him for taking the time to send me information. I look forward on incorporating this research backing into my speech.

In my pursuits of a career that is self guided, the one missing role that I feel I have yet to fill is that of a mentor. I can be my own boss, and make progress around work efficiency and making sure I’m working in the direction I have chosen, but the role of a mentor is something that is hard to replace. I imagine a mentor as someone who has gone somewhere before you, and has achieved, perhaps only in part, something you hope to achieve. They teach, guide and advise.

In my search for a mentor, I’ve been bugging a couple of professionals in the fields of Memory and Creativity for some time to interview/question them on their careers and respective fields.

Dr. Ken Higbee is a professor at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah and has been at the forefront of memory research for the last 30 years or so. His book “Your Memory: How It Works and How To Improve It” is one of my favorite books on memory because it mixes practical advice with the research that backs it. After a bit of persistance, I finally got in touch with Dr. Higbee last week, and was lucky enough to get some of his time over the phone.

Dr. Higbee concurred that much of the practical research on memory improvement and learning never makes it into the classroom, which is clearly a problem. He has given memory seminars on a limited basis, and often focuses on simple memory tasks. He has addressed everyone from college students to the elderly, and was able to give me some great advice. His current research focuses on the top memory problems that our society faces. The runaway winner is remembering names and faces, while in the academic environment, student complain of problems with remembering for tests and exams.

This week, I am in Toronto for a family wedding, and was able to get in touch with Tom Wujec, one of my favorite authors on Creativity. Tom works for Autodesk, a creative software company, and has written two books on my shelf; Pumping Ions, and Five Star Mind. I’m hoping to meet Tom for lunch on Wednesday, and ask him about his professional speaking experience, and how I can use some of the exercises from his book to connect with my audiences.

Will either of these experts become my mentors? Maybe, maybe not… in the least I hope to continue contact with them. However, I have found something even more valuable in this exercise of contacting and interviewing admirable people in the fields of study I’m interested in. Their advice is in invaluable and getting that advice was not very difficult once I set my mind to it. I hope to continue to interview leaders and possible mentors over the next few months.