Hello dear readers, I hope you are doing well. Lately, with a crisis in the job market, we all are beginning to get back to our drawing boards and have to re-evaluate many things in our life. This is where we use the art of reflection to improve our chances of success by 50%!
How many times have you been pleasantly surprised when someone compliments you on a certain skill or a little rattled when someone criticizes you for a certain reason? In both cases, you might not even have been aware of some aspects of yourself until it was brought to your attention. This is because with our busy life, schedules, and mind, by the end of the night when we have a little time for ourselves we are fast asleep.
This is where from today onwards you can begin to actively reflect on your behaviours and experiences of the day or allocate a specific time in the day for this purpose. This is necessary because when we say we live in a fast-paced society what we often fail to understand is that we are also unassumingly caught up in the fast-paced circle, but if we just get down from this pace and slow down a little, we will realize that it is easier to be on top of everything this way.
To simply, when an organisation is going through major changes and problems that are stressful for everyone in the team, what separates a great leader from a normal leader is their ability to ‘stop, reflect, and do’. When everyone is in a panicked situation, the leader opts to pause for a moment to assess the situation in their mind, and then reflect on the circumstance and then finally take the necessary decisions in a calm manner that communicates a certain amount of reassurance to others. This quality immensely pulls the team from going into a tunnel of despair only because of one simple action that the leader took of reflecting. Had the leader not reflected, then there would be a possibility they would be as panicked as other members and would have failed to reassure the team.
Reflecting on your day can make your life so much easier, this is because you know why you are doing what and more importantly you are also aware of what you don’t know. I often meet students who are confused when they are asked to choose a career path based on their strengths and weaknesses. They don’t know how to actually assess this and even if they have an idea they are hesitant to say it. While it is understandable, the key is to constantly take note of small victories or losses in your life. If one looks at their day and sees what activity they enjoyed the most, such as, interacting with people or writing and so on, they get a clue as to what they can pursue. You can also objectively know the skills that are currently not up to the level but would like to improve on. This will allow you to direct your energy in this world through ideas based on your assessment. Hence, improving your decision-making skills, confidence and most importantly allowing you to truly enjoy what you do.
You can begin by setting some time in the day to quickly go through your day without being judgmental and objectively understanding your day. Alternatively, you can also write about your experiences in a journal. Soon, you will learn active self-reflection, where during the interactions you pick up on reasoning behind your actions and experiences.
Remember, the key is to understand yourself, your expectations, actions and words. Do not take this time to judge yourself, criticizing yourself, or trying to understand others’ actions. This will defeat the purpose and drive you to feel more stressed out than before to the point that you might begin to avoid thinking about your actions altogether. Reflect on your day by appreciating yourself and strive to enhance your strengths and work on what you identify as your weakness.
Remember to be kind and gentle with yourself and use the art of reflection for success!
If you found this interesting you can check out how to improve your decision-making skills using the concepts of self-reflection. Also, Kristine Carlson has a great podcast on the art of reflection for success, you can check it out by clicking here!
Credits: Photo by Yeshi Kangrang on Unsplash