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Embrace the journey within
Bailey & Rehman 2022 research in Harvard Business, defines self-reflection as being candid with oneself by looking back at defining moments in our lives and examining what worked during those moments, what didn’t work, and how we can do it better next time if improvement is required.
It is the process of introspectively examining our thoughts, feelings, actions, and motivations in life.
Self-reflect involves looking back at event/situations in our lives that we found tough, frustrating, or difficult and asking ourselves questions about that situation.
Self- reflection helps us to scrutinize the situation and learn from it; you look back at your actions of the day and learn from it.
Case scenario:
Me; today I was frustrated, and my day was ruined because I couldn’t get to work on time due to school morning traffic.
Self-reflection: what is the issue- Frustration and a ruined day. What happened? Arrived at work late due to school morning traffic. What would you do differently next time? Get up early to avoid the morning traffic jam.
Our goals reflect our values system. Our values are the bearings that keep us linked to our purpose in life, be it at work or in our daily lives. We therefore get frustrated when these values are not met but looking beyond our frustration at situation and finding solutions helps us deal with circumstance and forge our way forward in growth.
Self-reflection is a component of personal development and self-awareness, allowing us to gain deeper understanding into our individuality and our behavior.
Aspects of Self -reflection.
- Understanding emotions:
- Self-reflection helps us identify our emotions and their triggers.
- Helps us recognize patterns in our emotional responses.
- Evaluating our actions and behavior
- Self-reflection helps assess our actions and their consequences.
- It helps us analyze how our behavior align with our values and goals.
- Identifying strengths and weaknesses:
- Self-reflection helps us recognize our strengths and areas for improvement.
- It also helps us leverage our strengths and address our weaknesses.
- Clarifying values and beliefs:
- Self-reflection helps us understand our core values and beliefs.
- It helps us understand how situations cans influence our actions and decisions.
- Setting goals and objectives:
- Reflecting on our past actions and setbacks helps us set goals and objectives.
- Self- reflection helps us set realistic and meaningful goals for both personal and professional growth.
When we keep to self-reflection and make it a habit, we can benefit from the following:
- Increase our self-awareness, improve our self-understanding and personal growth.
- Helps us improve on our emotional intelligence through managing our emotions more effectively and enhance our relationship with others.
- Our problem solving skills improve, we grow in critical thinking towards our actions resulting in us developing the ability to approach problem solving skills in different perspectives.
- Self-reflection facilitates continuous learning and development, professionally and personally.
- It promotes mental health by reducing stress and increasing our sense of control and purpose.
How to practice self-reflection:
Journaling: This is regular documentation of our thoughts and experiences. You can also use prompts to guide our reflection for example asking yourself “what did I learn today, or how did I handle a challenging situation?’
Use of meditation and mindfulness technique: Practice mindfulness to remain present and be aware of your thoughts and emotions. It helps us reduce anxiety and have control.
Seek feedback from others to gain different perspectives about ourselves. Reflect on the feedback to understand how others perceive you and you improve from the feedback given.
Regular reviews like monthly, weekly depending. This will help you track your progress towards goals and plans as needed.
Key to successful self-reflection:
- Be honest with yourself about your thoughts, feelings, and behavior.
- Be patient with yourself because the progress of self-reflection is gradual and takes time.
- During reflections find a quiet and safe place where you can reflect without destruction
- Don’t be hard on yourself. Be compassionate and treat yourself with kindness and understanding
Conclusion:
Incorporating self-reflection in our daily life can significantly improve our self-awareness, help us asses our actions and their consequences and analyze how our behavior aligns with our values, goals and those of others.
