Self- Reflection is the Key to Self-Improvement

Reflect is a key part in creating improvement. It helps us rise to the next leave and avoid plateauing. You should take the time to self-reflect in all areas of your life (career, relationships, health, spiritual, etc..). Reflection is a cyclical action, thus it is never ending, which is why it helps generate growth.

The Cycle of Reflection:

1. Action

2. Self- Assessment of the effect

3. Consider new ways to get the intended result

4. Practice those new ways

Actions do not just happen out of no where. Actions steam from our thoughts, beliefs, habits, and routines. If we can isolate certain actions and analyze them, we can start the change towards new actions of self-improvement.

Your Self-Assessment should use some sort of metric or rubric. Making it measurable will help you objectively find better pathways for improvement

. A list of questions that you answer every time you reflect on that action is a good starting point. Some questions could be:

How did I do?

Where are my strengths in this action?

Where can I improve in this action?

Why did I act this way?

What habit, routine, feeling, or belief is at the core of this action? Is it based on the truth? Evidence?

A self-assessment gives you a more objective and documented approach to your reflection. Some strategies you can use is to video tape the action, journal about the action afterwards, have others give you a feedback on the action, or track progress with an app or accountability partner.

You need to begin considering different ways to obtain your intended result. This may require research for different theories, thought processes, and methods of obtain this type of result. For example, if you are a teacher then you would need to look into different learning methods and theories to help build a better lesson for your students. You might be looking to see if they are engaged, what type of learners they are, and how your lesson is reaching your students. Considering different ways broadens your perspective and may even allow you to see potential areas of improvement that you didn't know needed improving before.

Practice what you learn. If it is just knowledge and you do not apply it, then what is the use of that knowledge? Applying the knowledge will allow you to be able to see what other areas you need to improve on. It is like getting a new tool or toy. You need to play with it in order to fully understand it and for it to be useful to you in the long run.

Remember, reflection is a learned action. It will take time for you to find an effective and efficient reflection process that allows you to seek self-improvement.

Some common barriers to your reflection practice:

1. You feel like you do not have time to do the process

2. You feel like the environment that you are in would not support a reflection process

3. You feel like you lack skill in reflection or in the action to be able to fully reflect on it

4. You feel like the physical environment around you has too many distractions, thus you can't fully concentrate on reflection

5. You feel like it is not important to reflect on a certain action

Notice these common barriers are based on feelings. Feelings can be managed, thus you need to find ways to work through those feelings in order to fully grasp the benefit of reflection.

Share how reflection has helped you. What are some of your techniques you use in reflection?