The Quick Guide To Self Reflection

Self reflection is the process of looking back at yourself and your life over a specific period of time.  It’s not hard, but creating the time to do it can be challenging.

It’s not hard, or even very complicated.  All it takes is asking yourself a couple of questions and seeing how you feel about the answers you come up with.  It can be quick too – a few minutes every day or a little longer than that every week or month is all you need to learn something about yourself and where you want to go.

So don’t wait any longer.  🙂

How to (Pretty Quickly) Self Reflect

1. Ask Yourself – What has gone well? – This is pretty simple.  First, pick a time period that you are reflecting upon.  And, in that time period, think about what went “well” for you.  How you define “well” is up to you.  “Well” could mean things you enjoyed, things that made you feel energized, things where you felt successful, things where you felt alive.  Also, don’t discount the little things.  If one of your favorite moments from yesterday was eating breakfast with your roommates, put that on the list.  There is no moment too small or insignificant that you can’t count it towards “going well.”
2. Ask Yourself – What has not gone well? – This is also pretty simple.  In your time period think about the things that didn’t go well for you.  As before, the definition of this is up to you.  But, think about things that made you feel the opposite from the things you listed above.
3. Ask Yourself – Why? – Now that you have your two lists, your work is almost done.  But, now you need to figure out why each item is on the list that you’ve put it on.  So, for each item, ask “why?”  This will give you clues as to what things make you feel alive, excited, energized, and successful (so you can begin to do more of these!), and also what things make you feel the opposite (so you can begin to avoid them!).  The more that you complete this exercise the more that you will see patterns and trends emerge.  And these patterns and trends emerging – those are the things that make up You.

How do you spend your reflection time?  Any other methods or questions you have found helpful?  Please share in the comments.