Build Self Awareness Through the Power of Reflection
“Self awareness gives you the capacity to learn from your mistakes as well as your successes. It enables you to keep growing.”
In this busy day and age, self awareness is essential to success. We need to be able to recognize our behaviours and adapt to different situations that we face on a daily basis. The key word here is impact: in order to have the most effective impact, we must be self aware so we can recognize what we need to to in order to get there.
So how does reflection figure into all of this? Reflection, even a few minutes a day staring out the window of a conference room, can help us continue to build self awareness. These moments will not only help us process the events that we experience daily - all kinds of events, but also provide us with data about ourselves that we can apply to future experiences.
A few years ago I was heavily involved in triathlons which was at that point, my form of reflection - long bike rides, swims and runs. So, your form may be unique to whatever it is you love to do. Whatever you decide, make sure it's just you and your mind so you can really focus on reviewing your experiences, emotions and conversations that come to mind. You'll have the most insights if you take time to reflect via journaling as studies have shown that by either typing or writing your brain processes at a deeper level. Either way, figure out what works best for you via some experimentation.
Here is a guided 5 minute reflection to focus on gaining self awareness:
1) What is on your mind? What may have happened today or recently that comes up? Describe what happened or what it is that is on your mind.
2) How did that make you feel? What do you feel about it now? How do you think others felt? How did you play a role in bringing about those feelings?
3) What were the issues or challenges involved with this event? What do you think it means? How can you reframe or reposition this to gain further insight into what happened and how you feel about it? Think about any other insights you may have.
4) What will you and can you do now? What lessons can you draw upon to improve the situation going forward? Does anything need to be decided that can help you in the future? What can you glean about yourself based on what happened and how you feel now, to move forward with confidence and composure?