How often are you taking part in some personal reflection?
Have you prioritised this valuable time or does it not feature on your to do list at all?
In a busy world where life has become 24 hours and 100 mph the time for reflection (in many cases) has been lost.
The need however, has become even greater.
There always seems to be something else capturing our attention or popping up to distract us. I wrote about this in a previous post on Distraction or Addiction.
So what can you do?
Well as someone who has been reflecting and keeping a daily journal for the last 2 years, I can say it’s not as hard as you may think.
First of all it’s important to have a reason for doing so.
Initially I chose to reflect each day and capture my thoughts in a journal as I worked towards achieving a better work-life balance. After 12 months my focus shifted slightly and I found myself connecting more with my inner thoughts and understanding more about myself.
Looking back over each year it’s fascinating to read over my thoughts and make sense of what was happening at different times.
Here’s some tips for practising reflection;
- Choose a reason or reasons to start reflecting
- Do it daily (and after a while this becomes a habit)
- Find a format that works for you e.g. journal, Evernote etc
- Commit a time period for reflecting each day e.g. 10-15 minutes
- Spend 45-60 minutes each month looking back over your journal
Typically I reflect and write for 10 minutes each day, usually at night once my day is coming to an end. This allows me to pause and think back over the events of the day. I choose to write rather than just thinking as it allows me to note certain things which I may come back to later on. If you use an app like Evernote then you can upload images as well which become great memories when you look back over your notes each month.
Chris Myers shares his thoughts on the Simple nightly routine that makes you a better entreprenuer
Ultimately my biggest gain has come from being able to connect with some of my thoughts and make some different decisions going forward. You can’t ignore what’s written down!
In fact in the second year of reflecting and writing everyday I challenged myself to focus only on one or two key thoughts from the day; taking a leaf out of Greg McKeown’s excellent book titled Essentialism (where he encourages you to focus on what’s essential).
Give it a go and start noticing a difference in your stress levels after 1 week.
Until next time, thanks for reading
Jeff
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News on the Perfect Imbalance Podcast launch is coming soon…
This week’s recommended Podcast is; Zestology hosted by Tony Wrighton
Featured image by Randy Jacob
Writing image by Simson Petrol