“If you keep doing what you did, you’ll keep getting what you got.” There are lots of versions of this phrase, by lots of different people, for a very good reason.
Repeating what we do without reflecting means we don’t learn anything about ourselves or know what works and what doesn’t.
Image; Hannah Wei, unsplash
Most weeks for the last few years, I’ve been sharing reflections on my week in a LinkedIn post which I call my ‘#ThreeThings’. As the title suggests, I note three things that have made the biggest impressions on me during my week and what I’ve learned from them and share them in a short post.
It’s been a practice that I’m constantly developing, tweaking the way that I gather my thoughts and structuring them into something that makes sense (and is hopefully useful) for me and others. It’s helped me to learn how to step back and look at situations more objectively and see things through different eyes.
I’ve learned that this approach has helped me to get more clarity, spot recurring themes and show me in black and white how I – and others – deal with change, whether that’s in life or work.
Although I never planned for it to last this long, I’ve found this reflective practice really helpful and I’ve had some great feedback from others that this approach been useful for them too. It’s something I’ve found really valuable in my client work, too.
As we approach the end of the year, this is probably one of the best times for reflection. To think about what’s worked well for us across the year and more importantly, what we can stop doing next year both in our work and home lives.
But, when all around you can feel even more frantic than usual, how can you find time to reflect, consider and learn?
Find time
It can always feel like there are never enough minutes in the day to add something else to your to do list. But there are always tiny gaps somewhere that you can use for either capturing your thoughts or spending time reflecting on what you’ve noted. As you work through your day, can you practice spotting minutes that you could put to good reflective use?
Find an approach that works for you
I capture thoughts, ideas and insights on my experiences in all sorts of places throughout my week – notebooks, voice notes, emailing myself, in my diary or making notes on my phone. I take 10 minutes at the end of every day to go through them and ask myself some of the following questions:
- Was this an insight or experience?
- If it was an experience, what did I feel? How did it impact me (or others)? Why do I think I felt that way?
- Whether it’s an insight or experience, are there any themes that come to mind or does this relate to any experiences I’ve had before?
- What learning can I take from this? And when and how can I apply that?
Once I’ve done this, I jot down my thoughts and use these to form my #ThreeThings. But I know others who record them on voice notes or even share videos. Whatever works best for you.
Find the gold
I’ve learned that reflection is a muscle that needs to be developed and flexed, regularly, if we’re to get the best learning from it.
From my own experience, the practice of spotting the daily experiences and insights that can feed into your reflective practice takes time to develop. But once you start, it’s hard to stop.
The end of a year often feels like a good time to reflect on what worked and what didn’t. But, that’s a lot of information to sift and the feelings associated with those events can be hard to recall.
If you’d like to make this a habit for next year, get in touch. I’m happy to help you figure out a good way to make this a valuable exercise.