The Art of Most Self-Reflection
8 Final Methods For Self-Reflection
The final chapter of actionable self-reflection concludes with 8 more points on self-reflection.
Track Energy – I started this very recently. I went for a run last Wednesday morning and pulled a muscle in my back. It was the first time I’d run in a while, and I clearly didn’t warm up enough. Part of me thought, “This is a sign I shouldn’t exercise at all”. But I considered how much more energized I felt, even with an injury. It was a sign I shouldn’t get out of bed and immediately exercise without a warm-up, but a sign I should commit to consistent exercise. The entire process worked to increase my energy levels. I just needed to slightly alter the sections of the process. The noticeable increases in energy levels act as a motivator for exercise, which as discussed earlier is another great method of self-reflection. Tracking energy can also relate to the quality of sleep, diet, water intake, and levels of countless other elements within the body. Pursuit of these is important for maintaining your health.
Tracking Wins – Just as we can self-reflect on mistakes to incite self-improvement, we can reflect on our wins to repeat them.
Subconscious Questions – I’m not sure if this works for me, but I’ve heard others say it helps them, and I’ve put a slight pivot on it to make it work for me. Every day, before they go to bed, many people ask themselves a question they hope their subconscious will answer as they sleep. You let the question embody you before you sleep, and your brain will work on the issue overnight.
I find a few problems with this. Firstly, I’ll start thinking of the question I want my subconscious to answer, and I get distracted, usually by the thought of food. Then I spend the entire night dreaming of food. Fun, right?
Secondly, I find my mind needs time to switch off. Considering often deep, philosophical questions before I sleep doesn’t do the best for my quality of sleep. So I pivot to consider a question a day before I stop my work for the day, at around 6 pm. To do this, I’ve downloaded one of those spin wheels with multiple options. You can access these on the internet or your mobile phone app store. I store 100 questions on my spin wheel, and every day it randomly chooses one. I’ll then spend 10 minutes considering my question before making some notes. Plus a spin wheel is fun. Make self-reflection fun with a spin wheel!
Photo by Daniel Monteiro on Unsplash What Have I Changed My Mind On Recently? – This is one of the most important questions on my spin wheel, and I thought I’d include it here. Changing your mind is a sign of adaptability and growth. It's important that we never sink into comfort, which in turn is a situation where we likely don’t change our minds often. The stereotype is the older generations become stuck in their ways due to familiar patterns tending to lead to similar successful results. The work on generations by Neil Howe and William Strauss created the Strauss-Howe generation theory which is a helpful aid here. The work implies that certain behaviour patterns occur in the same generation, over a span of around 20 years. It's between generations that we see these behaviour patterns change. Very similar to the concept that strong leaders create good times, which creates weak leaders. These weak leaders create bad times, and hence strong leaders rise again. The cyclical nature of life is brilliantly interesting and can help explain similarities and differences between and even within generations.
We can all work to consider our own behavioural patterns, and to ask ourselves where we haven’t changed our mind recently and perhaps should have given it some thought. By observing the opposite viewpoint to the one you hold most dear, you might learn a thing or two and change your mind, leading to a better overall understanding of the topic, and some personal growth. If you don’t change your mind, your better understanding of the entire subject will only solidify the belief you held in the first place. That way you can promote this belief with greater conviction.
This also connects to the aspect of risk aversion in the stock market. Those with a higher risk aversion are more concerned about losses than gains. While it is a great idea to always try to limit your losses in any situation, sometimes calculated risks can lead to greater success. This is part of the reason why older investors are so successful. Yes, now they’re safer and more risk-averse, but when they found an opportunity when they were younger with a high level of certainty, they committed heavily.
Find yourself your level of a happy medium, based on how risk-averse you are, and how comfortable you are. If you have high levels of comfort in your life, reflect on where you can increase calculated risk in your life. If you’re surrounded by high levels of risk, consider how you can lower the downside when you do lose, whether in life in general or investing.
Most importantly, set yourself the goal to change your mind on something, and then reflect upon this.
Photo by Jarl Schmidt on Unsplash Discomfort and Action – I’ve discussed comfort in many of the points above, but it continues to be one of the most important aspects in my life that I track. Since I’ve started actively self-reflecting in my life, I’ve found myself reflecting more on discomfort, and how I feel better for recognising it and most importantly, pursuing it. Pop your own comfort bubble and try things that scare you. Afterwards, you might find you’re not happy, and that’s a sign it's not in conjunction with the discomfort you need. But if you find yourself happy after pursuing discomfort, it's perhaps a sign that you’ve found good discomfort that’s worth repeating. Take note of this.
Values – Somewhat connected to the personality tests, considering our values allow us to focus on our deepest beliefs. Our values are frameworks for us to follow. When our values are broken, we feel tension with ourselves because we’re going against who we naturally are. Align your choices with your values to feel harmony with yourself. Addressing our values can also help us connect with our purpose.
To better stick to your values, adopt principles and mental models as your own. I started by stealing other people’s principles and mental models. Over time, when you find areas of your life where you feel tension, you can better understand your values, and create principles to monitor these values and ensure you stick to them.
Photo by Austin Chan on Unsplash Habits – I find my habits help aid my self-reflection by setting the same times to self-reflect every day. I journal about gratitude in the morning, before journalling my daily review and reflecting on my mood, energy, and overall day rating and the causes of the conclusions I make in the evening. This consistency makes it easier to integrate self-reflection into your schedule. It also helps you keep up with your own needs.
Your General Level of Happiness – We all have a base level of happiness. Some of us fluctuate between a 3 and a 7. Some are between a 6 and a 9. What’s important is that we seek to control that which we can control and cast aside what we cannot control.
The book Authentic Happiness by Martin Seligman creates an equation for happiness, dubbed the “happiness formula”:
Happiness = Set Range + Circumstances + Voluntary Control
The set range is due to our genetics. It is the base level of happiness that we fluctuate between that we cannot control.
Our circumstances are external events that affect happiness. However, many researchers only attribute 10% of our happiness to our circumstances.
The important element is voluntary control. This can come from cultivating a more positive attitude, of which gratification can aid greatly. It can arise from physical exercise or showing kindness to others. Finally, it can be a consequence of pursuing our purpose. These are elements of our happiness we can reflect on and control. These are our actions. The rest is noise.
An important aside is that without periods of sadness, or fear, we couldn’t have periods of happiness. Life will throw difficulties at you. We just have to accept the wave we’ve been given and learn to ride it, shifting our feet when we can, and accepting that sometimes, we might fall off. But we always get back on the board, and ride the wave once again.
Concluding Remarks
Thank you to anybody who has read any section of my work on self-reflection. I've enjoyed putting it together and reminding myself how we have the power to better understand ourselves. From this, there are countless positive effects on our lives, we just have to actively pursue the methods of self-reflection.
Sources:
9 Most Common Regrets People Have At The End of Life by Grace Bluerock of Mindbodygreen.com.
https://the-happy-manager.com/article/elements-of-happiness/