What is Self-Reflection?
To self-reflect is to check in on your beliefs, experiences, changes, actions, and behavior. We normally self-reflect at the end of the year to set our New Year’s resolutions. But you can self-reflect at any point in the year which is important to gain its benefits.
Benefits of Self-Reflection
Emotional Intelligence
When you self-reflect it forces you to look for the truth inside yourself. Which helps you create self-regulation and self-awareness. Self-awareness helps you understand what drives you, know your values, and your goals, and obtain a deeper understanding of your emotions, strengths, and weaknesses. Self-reflection allows you to redirect your negative emotions and help to adapt to your circumstances as they change. Having both of these skills will help you to improve all areas of your life.
Integrity
A clear view of your core values will serve your integrity to help you make better choices. When we are in a stressful situation our integrity gets put to the test. This is why it is important to take the time to self-reflect and observe your actions and decisions.
Confidence
Having confidence makes you a better communicator and makes you better at making decisions. Confidence is important to managing our complex life. Self-reflection will also increase your confidence in your strengths and be able to close any gaps you have in your weaknesses.
Productivity
It is so easy to fall into habitual patterns. We try our best to maximize productivity. You may feel like there is never enough time to stop and think. Having a self-reflection practice will give you the opportunity to process all your new ideas and help you adapt to any changes. This in turn will make you a more truly productive person.
Here are some questions about Self-Reflection to help you get started
- Who are you?
- What achievements are you proudest of?
- What are you grateful for?
- What’s the most important thing in your life?
- Do you spend time with the most important things in your life?
- Who are the 5 people you spend the most time with?
- Are these people adding to your energy or depleting your energy?
- Are they holding you back or supporting you?
- What are your biggest goals in life?
- What is holding you back from achieving these goals?
- List any support you have.
- What have you learned in the past 6 months?
- How can what you’ve learned in life help you move forward?
- Where is your energy going when you feel stressed?
Let’s go Deeper
- Set an intention by choosing an area in life to focus on, eg. career, health.
- Find a quiet space to be alone and write a list of questions that you would like the answers to.
- Now answer those questions honestly. Yes, you do know the answers, I don’t want to hear you saying “I don’t know”!
It’s now time to take Action
Clearly identify the steps you need to take. Create an action plan. What do you want to start and stop doing? What will you continue to do? Eg. I want to stop procrastinating or I need to start being more grateful for my life.