Socrates once said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Are you really living if you don’t examine your life? Imagine everything you wouldn’t have learned if you didn’t look back on past mistakes, success, and experiences. You wouldn’t have evolved into who you are today, and I think Socrates’ quote speaks to this. By examining and self-reflecting on who you are and finding the why in all that you do, it not only helps you improve our responses and behaviours, but it also allows you to envision a clear future. Self-reflection at work enables this too. Continue reading to learn about the copious benefits of self-reflecting at work, as well as prompts to start using.
If you’re a video or audio learner, uncover the benefits of self-reflection at work in episode 149 of the Your Brilliant Difference ™ Podcast: Look Back to Leap Forward: The Benefits of Self-Reflecting at Work.
Self-Reflection Benefits
Self-reflection is the act of examining past experiences, whether they be successes or failures, and it helps you answer these questions:
- What happened?
- Why did I react that way?
- What impact did the situation have on me and others?
- Will this situation happen again?
- What can I do to replicate or avoid the situation?
Essentially, self-reflection isn’t just acknowledging that something happened, but getting deep into the weeds and tapping into every element of the experience: why it matters to you, and how it affected your life.
When we can answer these questions at work, magic happens:
1. Perseverance Through Challenges
Self-reflecting on how you managed past challenges at work can equip you to more effectively overcome future hurdles. Self-reflecting helps you see what mannerisms you’d like to leave in the past and which strengths you need to bring to the table again to find a solution.
2. Success Celebrations and Talent Development
Likewise, when you reflect on things that go well for you at work, you can celebrate your strengths and talents, and know what skills to continue using and growing.
Challenge perseverance, success celebration, and talent development, then lead you to reap these benefits:
- Refined work quality and performance.
- Confidence from gaining clarity on your strengths.
- Saying yes to more opportunities (when you know what you’re good at, you know how you best support projects or people).
Without self-reflection at work, you may spin in a frustrated, detached spiral for weeks, months, or even years.
With self-reflection at work, you’re a confident leader who champions their strengths and is eager to apply solutions and jump into new opportunities.
Self-Reflection Prompts
You want to be the confident leader who champions their strengths, not someone who spirals in frustration, but you’ve never self-reflected before, so where do you start?
Here.
Reflection Questions Post-Situation
- What went well?
- What could I have improved upon?
- What am I learning from this? What’s my key takeaway?
- What new action am I going to take?
- What will I do next time?
- How can I better lean on my Brilliant Difference ™?
- How did my Brilliant Difference™ show up?
Reflection Questions Post-Situation
- What am I feeling?
- What’s causing me to feel this way?
- How is it making me react?
- Why is it making me react this way?
- How can I lean on my strengths and Brilliant Difference ™ to find a way forward?
Asking yourself these questions can at first feel uncomfortable because it’s a one-way dialogue. Try writing the questions out on a piece of paper or within a document and answer them that way.
Remember Your Brilliant Difference™
Self-reflecting is like when the sun breaks through the clouds after days of rain; everything becomes so much clearer. Reflecting allows you to uncover the why of your reactions and feelings, helping you to find solutions and ways forward more effectively at work. It’s a performance-enhancer, strength-booster, and opportunity creator.
And when you’re reflecting, remember, it always comes back to your Brilliant Difference™ and defining ways you can consistently show up as your best self.
