This evening I made spaghetti for dinner. [Editor’s note: John’s spaghetti is fairly amazing]. As I chopped and stirred and blended and spiced I reflected on the day – as well as the weekend, which was socially busy and did not allow much time for reflection – and, currently, sit on the couch relaxed and with many problems solved and ideas strategically prepared.
Because reflection is useful, educational and important. Whether you want to develop your product, service or yourself, thinking about what you did and how you did it will help you get to where you want to be more quickly and efficiently than just driving forward with your head down in a straight line.
I’ll admit that I have reflection on the brain today because my boss mentioned Kolb’s experiential principles today – what? so what? now what? and all the rest of it. Anyway, my point is this: whatever it is and however you do it, build reflection into your process. When you experience something – good, bad or meh – take some time to think about what happened, how it happened, what you accomplished (or failed to accomplish), what you learned, and how you feel about the whole thing.
Savvy?
There are a few ways that I like to do my reflecting: making spaghetti sauce (obviously), watering plants (any gardening, really), and bike riding represent my solo-reflective favourites. And if I’m reflecting with friends, colleagues or a/several nemesis/nemeses, I prefer to do so in a cafe or public house over delicious caffeinated or carbonated beverages that provide lubrication to the conversation. I encourage you to find your preferred style of reflection and to consider all the myriad ways that you’re awesome after you’ve done something that reveals such awesomeness.
When we go too fast we miss things and, frankly, we fail to explore opportunities to grow our skills and, by extension, better impact our communities. The motto of work, life, hustle is fine for getting stuff done quickly, but true community building comes from sustaining ideas and success for a long time – or forever – by constantly thinking about how to make things better.
So get out there, experience life and reflect on the positive impact that you make on it. Be sure to have some fun, too.
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Masthead photo courtesy of J. Chris Vaughn on Flickr