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Passioneer® Shannon Cutts, Founder of MentorConnect, the 1st Eating Disorder Community

July 6, 2010 By Leave a Comment

[private][private]On Wednesday July 7th, at 9am PST, we’re interviewing Shannon Cutts, the author of Beating Ana: How to Outsmart Your Eating Disorder and Take Your Life Back and the founder/director of MentorCONNECT, the first global eating disorders mentoring community. Shannon is a proud “survivor and thriver” after a fifteen-year battle with anorexia and bulimia. Her work has recently been featured in Woman’s Day, Glamour, and the Huffington Post. She can be reached at www.key-to-life.com.

SO: What’s your definition of passion?

Passion for me means being simply unable to stop pursuing my dreams. In my life, I have often felt like my passion or calling has pursued me, and that has given me a great deal of confidence and stamina to persevere when the passion has persisted but the path has seemed unclear.

SO: What are your biggest passions for serving others, and how are you expressing them (also include hobbies and volunteering)?

When I was recovering from my eating disorder, not much was known about eating disorders and no one was sharing their story of recovery, so I felt all alone for years and years as I battled to break free. Today my passion and purpose is to ensure that no one who is striving to recover from an eating disorder ever has to feel all alone on that journey. My book, Beating Ana, is structured around 27 chapters of all the things I did on a daily basis to recover from my eating disorder, and features correspondence from five of my longtime mentees who wrote to me and shared their private struggles, fears, and hopes. MentorCONNECT is a global mentoring network that provides one-on-one mentoring matches and group mentoring opportunities for individuals ages 14 and up who need support. We are using the power of the internet to connect with even those in isolated areas where support resources are hard to find. Beyond these activities, not only do I speak frequently to share insight into our current “culture of thin” and what it takes to achieve lasting recovery, but I serve as a mentor myself, run MentorCONNECT with my amazing leadership team, and continue to blog and write on the subject of mental health and eating disorders.

SO: Your biggest challenge(s) in leaping into your passions for serving others, and how you have addressed them?

Having no funding to start MentorCONNECT or get the message out about eating disorders mentoring was a huge perceived obstacle when I first started working with my team to create the organization in Sept 2007. So I researched and learned everything I could about low-cost website hosts and applications, taught myself about the basics of web design, and built the system we now use for our global mentoring interface. It was also challenging and a bit daunting at first to begin advocating for the inclusion of a lay recovery mentor to the treatment team and approaching treatment professionals inviting them to give lay survivors their voice and place on a sufferer’s recovery support team. But I was pleasantly surprised by how warmly eating disorders mentoring was received and how eagerly therapists and dietitians in particular have embraced Beating Ana and MentorCONNECT as quality source of ancillary support for their clients.

SO: Your experience of “prosperity,” as you define it, in making the leap?

Prosperity to me means trusting that I will always have what I need when I need it. For instance, there was a lot of fear in launching a new organization, in writing a book – will anyone join? Will anyone buy my book? I think this is normal – that fear of the unknown is biologically programmed into us at some level. To overcome this fear and make the leap I challenged myself to review my history over the long-term and ask myself one simple question, “Have you ever not had what you needed when you really needed it?” This question encompassed having a friend to talk to, a mentor to consult, money to pay rent and bills, and inspiration to keep working hard to pursue my passions. When I honestly took inventory of my life, I was able to answer, “I have always – somehow – had what I needed when I really needed it.” So that is my definition of “prosperity”.

SO: What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned in making the leap?

I have learned that it is important to stay centered in each moment – like Eminem sings in his autobiographical movie “8 Mile” (a movie I devote an entire chapter of my book Beating Ana to) “opportunity comes once in a lifetime” – and he asks, when that moment comes, will we be ready? Part of being ready is paying attention, staying focused, practicing good self-care, taking rest time when the opportunity presents itself, and working hard when hard work is what is needed. I have also learned that my own expectations for when things should happen or how I will succeed need to take a back seat to what is actually occurring in my life and in the unfolding of my passion. I have to be willing to eject self-critical thoughts and embrace patience, and challenge myself to see and embrace hidden blessings. Each person’s path will be different – and that includes mine.

SO: What’s your support system look like; how did you create it?

My longtime support team consists of my mentors, family, and friends. I have mentors in many different areas of life – from recovery mentors to business mentors. I rely on my mentors’ advice, expertise, wisdom, and most of all their willingness and ability to authentically mirror back to me who I am and what I am capable of achieving. My close friendships are longstanding and nurturing, and I continually focus in all of my activities on quality over quantity. And after many years of feeling somewhat disconnected to my family due to my eating disorder, I am happy to report today that I enjoy their company and take much inspiration from their own stories and insights.

SO: What wisdom do you have for someone who’s scared/discouraged about their own leap?

If you are the one who sees the problem or the need, then you are probably the one who is both well-position and well-equipped to address that problem or meet that need. I think it was Mother Teresa who said, “your work is where your deep desire and the world’s deep hunger meet” (check quote). Over the years I have learned that there is a combination of hard work and serendipity (which some call luck, some call fate, and some call faith) that is required to bring great ideas to fruition. In my experience, those who succeed are the ones who find creative ways to never, ever, give up! So if you see a leap, and your heart leaps in your chest when you contemplate making it, then re-frame that energy not as “fear” but as “e-motion” – and use that energy to JUMP!

SO: What’s your next big milestone?

We are working on several big projects right now related to MentorCONNECT. The first is an upgrade to our web platform that is challenging me to really examine our current processes and how we can better serve our members. MentorCONNECT is also in the process of designing our first clinical research survey to gather data to support the effectiveness of adding a lay recovery mentor to the sufferer’s treatment team so we are really excited about that! And in a parallel process, I am working hard with my management team to expand the focus of my speaking engagements to connect individuals who struggle with eating disorders back into the mainstream of society – my passion there is to promote better understanding of how our brains work and learn to work with our strengths rather than against our weaknesses. Plus, I am always trying to figure out how to get more sleep, and I would love to hear from anyone who has idea for how to keep my pet bird, Pearl, from shrieking during my phone calls!

Thanks Shannon and Happy Passioneering![/private][/private]

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