I love self-reflection. I journal almost every day. My mind is constantly trying to make sense of my inner and outer world. Self-reflection is how I’ve gotten out of jobs I was totally burnt out in, how I knew how to make big decisions in my life and how I knew to start this business.
For me, self-reflection builds awareness, understanding and allows me to make choices. Those three things - awareness, understanding and choice are the key to creating a purposeful life.
Awareness
You might recall last week’s post about my buddy Dr. Joe Dispenza. Here’s quote to help explain the awareness self-reflection cultivates: “If you become aware of your automatic habits and you are conscious of your unconscious behavior so you cannot go unconscious again, then you are changing.”
Self-reflection helps to move you from "unconscious incompetence” aka “I don’t know what I don’t know” to “conscious incompetence” aka “I am aware that I don’t know”. Essentially, you are acknowledging that you are now in awareness that some part of your life is requiring action, further introspection, habit change, etc.
This step can be really challenging for a lot of people. Media and society (and sometimes us life coaches do this too…) makes personal development out to be something that is super motivating and exciting. But, it’s a cup of humble pie when you take this step because you can’t un-know what you know. Life is permanently changed when you move from sleeping to awake. Sometimes I miss who I was before the a-ha moments, but then I remember that this personal development journey is all about playing big and playing on purpose.
Understanding
I’m feeling really quote-y this week so here’s another one to help describe understanding: “When you know better you do better” - Oprah. This phase of self-reflection is critical to moving from “conscious incompetence” aka “I am aware that I don’t know” to “conscious competence” aka “I am aware of what I know”. What Oprah is saying is that once you make sense of what you learn and once you start putting it into action in your life, you typically continue to get better each day.
Let’s say one day you are out frolicking in a field of bees (just go with me on this one). If you get stung by a bee at a time you are unconsciously incompetent and very quickly realize you are allergic to bees, you move almost immediately from conscious incompetence to conscious competence. You wouldn’t dream of frolicking in a field of bees again.
A real life example of this for me is having had worked in an operations area before in my career. I’m really good at it but it sucked the life out of me. I now know better (don’t like working in ops), so I do better (don’t apply for jobs that touch ops with a 10 feet pole!).
Choice
Like I said at the beginning, self-reflection has given me the clarity and the courage to make a lot of big decisions in my life. I believe we are presented with choices every day that determine how our lives are going to go. If you are in the dark, and not making time to self-reflect, you might end up making the wrong decisions. I have been here before. It’s usually how I end up burnt out or ending up in a situation that feels like a complete waste fo my time.
So why did a self-proclaimed self-reflection fan girl create a quiz to help others self-reflect that is only 6 questions long?!
I simplified the Self-Reflection Quiz down to 6 questions because I thought that was short enough to make people actually want to take the 2 minutes to think about where their life is at. If a 6 question quiz is what it will take to get someone to open their eyes to their own life, then I am going to create it and deliver it. I believe in the power of self-reflection and what it can do for our lives. I want it to be accessible to others as well. This quiz is a direct extension of my highest self and my life purpose.
One of the things I love most about the Self-Reflection Quiz is that you can take it over and over again. Not sure when to take it again? Create a reminder in your phone one month from now to check-in again.
Happy Reflecting, Friends!