Reflect Reflect & Reflect

The classic google search on word reflect shows “throw back without absorbing”.

What I want to talk about today is about the other meaning “to think deeply or carefully about”. Similar to how a mirror shows what’s kept in front of it due to reflection of light.

So, what does reflecting mean?

Take a moment sit back and run through how you spend your last day in your mind. List down things you liked to do and helped you & things that did not.

What you just did was a reflecting.

Why do we need to reflect?

To see how things actually happened as against what you planned in your mind: If the reason for variation is an external factor like this pandemic then you need to adapt to the change. If it is due to something you dint do now you know what needs to be done.

To analyze your mistakes and errors in judgement: Things go wrong all the time and that’s the nature of design because if everything well we won’t learn or change. When you reflect you give yourself a chance to change how you think and act in similar situation in the future.

To improve quality of decision making: See the pattern of your behavior i.e. decisions you make under particular circumstance. Chances are if you don’t do this, you’re doomed to make the same error.

To appreciate yourself for the right you did: We don’t take time to reflect on good that’s happened to us and don’t acknowledge it. Taking a moment to appreciate it might make you happy and help you understand what works for you.

To know yourself better:

“My friend…care for your psyche…know thyself, for once we know ourselves, we may learn how to care for ourselves” – Socrates (Greek philosopher)

Single biggest weapon one has to fight in the modern world is knowing yourself. No matter how much you know about yourself there is more to know. Reflect to know how you feel, act and perform tasks.

As famously said in the stock markets “you mind would be your best friend and your worst enemy”, it is difficult to create wealth without knowing yourself.

Let me share another case where I have immensely benefited from reflecting. In the past 4-5 odd months since the pandemic started taking toll on us we had a lot of time in hand.

Naturally first 2 months I spent on getting hang of things out of my control. The remaining time every single day I have spent on reflecting whatever I did in the past and things that I read of.

I scribbled on paper about things and decisions made. Wrote to give shape to my thoughts and to be more accountable of my actions. I still don’t know a lot of things but I am set on the path of knowing thyself which helps me in better writing, decision making and being a better person.

On an ending note let me share one my tweets:

“Reading is overrated, reflecting is underrated. Unless you reflect on your thoughts about what you read it’s difficult to learn from what you read. Reflect, reflect and reflect”.

Comments

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Connecting the dots

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