I’ve heard, more than once, the phrase to help someone behind you on the line. In fact, I think Tim McGraw said it best in his song “Humble and Kind”:

Don’t take for granted the love this life gives you
When you get where you’re goin’
Don’t forget turn back around
Help the next one in line
Always stay humble and kind

Someone, somewhere along your journey, probably reached back to help bring you up a ladder–whether personally, professionally, athletically, musically, whatever your interests and passions were–you probably didn’t do it all by yourself.

The proverbial “line” is the measure you inch along as you get more experience and become a more valuable member of whatever “team” you’re involved in. There are lots of people all along your line. Some have much more experience than you do, and some are just starting out along your line.

You may have had a mentor–whether you knew it or not–someone who was there to answer questions, give you instructions, help you find your way. Now that you’ve been doing it long enough that you’re mentoring others–whether you call it that or not–it is your turn to help someone else along that line.

Personally, I feel that it is my duty to help others in my chosen profession. Although I refuse to admit it, I won’t be doing this profession forever and it’s important to me that others love it as much as I do. It’s not a job. It’s my career–one I chose, one I studied for, one I took multiple certification exams for, one that I love. There is no more fulfilling feeling than watching someone that I have mentored bloom in this profession, pass certification exams, and mentor others.

Well that’s just on my profession line. I have a blogging line, a direct sales line, a grandmother line, a mother line, a wife line, basically a spiderweb of life lines. On some of them I’ve pretty far along, but on others, I’m just hugging the bottom–for now.

So check to see where you are on your many lines and how you can reach back and help someone to move up the line behind you. And then do that!