Upon Reflection

Posted on by Carlos E.

Everyone should be doing some form of daily or weekly reflection.

What if instead of cramming all our reflection and planning into the start of the new year, we spread it out in small, flexible increments throughout the year?

That’s what a daily or weekly reflection practice is.

It’s an opportunity to create space for ourselves. It’s incremental change. It’s short-term and long-term thinking done in a way that is low risk and high reward. It’s embracing change every step of the way while keeping our eyes on the big picture.

It’s progress over perfection put into practice.

When we make time for regular reflection, we put space between ourselves and the lives we lead. We give ourselves the opportunity to rethink our initial positions and to put the things that fill our days into perspective. Over time, this gives us a chance to be at our best, not only for our own health and mental well-being but for those who matter to us most.

5 Minutes a Day to Clear the Way:

Do we need to rush out and purchase expensive journals or planning kits? No, but there’s nothing wrong with doing that if you choose to. What’s more important is pursuing a path that we can maintain consistently. If that means buying into a particular tool or template, great! If that means jotting down some ideas on a scratch piece of paper, that’s great too!

What matters, is that we start.

No matter the stage of our lives and careers, we all stand to benefit from making a regular practice out of looking back as often as we look forward.

A few minutes a day or a few minutes a week could be what helps us get out of our heads just long enough to play a more proactive (not reactive) role in our lives and careers.

What’s Working? What Could Be Better? Where Do I Want to Be? How Will I Get There?

Those questions or some variation thereof are all we need to get started. We don’t have to have the perfect questions or perfect setup for this. We just need to make the time.

Are we too busy to make time to reflect? Nope. In fact, it’s just the opposite.

We’re far too busy NOT to.