The differing perceptions of reflection
I am a member of a very active group for self-improvement and personal growth and recently asked a question regarding the approaches that people take to their personal reflection and the results may (or may not) surprise you.
I asked the group this two-part question;
Do you have a method or approach for your personal reflection? How often do you reflect?
We had some great discussions and it inspired me to write this article.
It was interesting to me how much the concept of reflection differed, especially given that these are a group of people specifically interested in personal growth and self-reflection — so it does make me think what other people think about reflection too!
The styles of reflection discussed in the thread and showcased above could be categorised into the following;
- Spiritual
- Gratitudes
- Journaling
- General (daily or weekly)
Spirituality is a fundamental pillar of many peoples core values and can have an enormous influence on your decision-making process, however, tends to be related to ethical decisions; I don’t know how many ethical decisions are needed for day-to-day decisions for the average person—so perhaps this implies that you’re reflecting primarily on a small percentage of your daily decisions.
Gratitudes is a method of affirmation that reports incredible effects, from improving our mental health to boosting our relationships with others. Another effect of regular or daily gratitudes discussed is a shift towards positive thought that influences your decision-making processes. It is definitely a type of reflection but I can’t help but feel that it could be used to ignore important decisions that result in negative results and outcomes — in this way, I would view gratitudes in a similar way to how I view positive affirmations (read my article on the influence of positive affirmations on self-improvement https://myreflectionsapp.medium.com/how-do-positive-affirmations-influence-reflection-and-self-improvement-c945f1fafe81 ) - that is, using daily gratitudes influences your decision-making processes and therefore has an impact on your reflections, as part of the “action” portion of the action-observation-reflection model.
Journaling is a great method of reflection! It has many forms and templates that range from “retrospective” types to completely unstructured “diaries”. The only potential issue that I see with journaling is the frequency of data capture, as I have written before; the value and learnings derived from reflection increase significantly the closer to the activity. Further, unstructured journaling may lack the “triggers” required to promote reflection at the most effective level — that is the actions and their results. I see the benefits of a less structured reflection though, so much so that I introduced a journal activity type, as well as daily check-ins, to My Reflections — but the vision is that this is supplementary to activity level reflection.
General reflection on a daily/weekly basis is better than nothing, absolutely, but it has many of the same concerns that I have with journaling. I worry that you are likely too far removed from a situation to get the most out of reflecting on it (if you even remember it!)
My Reflections promotes the capturing of reflection activities throughout the week; meetings, tasks, projects, wellness, appointments and then allocating an appropriate amount of time to your weekly deep dive/retrospective where you can evaluate your performance, see trends in your reflection habits and make commitments to yourself on where you will focus on improvements.
The truth is that reflecting at a “high level” and infrequently is just simply not as effective as reflecting on specific actions and their outcomes — because ultimately, self-improvement is best achieved by training yourself to make better decisions in the situations that you find yourself in.
In saying that, spirituality, gratitudes, journaling and general reflections are tools that will influence your decision-making process or form a part of your self-reflection, however, they should be used hand-in-hand with more consistent, effective reflection habits to power up your self-improvement journey.
This has been a great thought exercise for me, the outcomes of which will feed into the promotion and roadmap of the My Reflection product and its’ features.
What do you think? What form of reflection works for you? Do you agree with my assessment of these perceptions of reflection?
