Self reflection

Short description: In this article, I share my personal approach to self-reflection, which I use to monitor my personal growth. I provide a simple, four-question framework for this type of self-assessment and discuss how it can be implemented in practice. I believe that regular self-reflection is essential for personal development, and my hope is that this article will encourage others to engage in this practice as well.

If you are employed in a company similar to the one I work for then yearly assessment season is probably just behind us. It is valuable period where we write self assessments, get and give reviews from/to our colleagues.

While I strongly encourage practice of self assessments and doing them on a regular basis in our workplace, from time to time I like to take a more holistic approach to them. This type of assessments I keep mostly for myself and is a way how I monitor my growth on more personal level.

It is a process that lasts bit longer (sometimes it takes weeks) and therefore I like to think about it as a self reflection, hence the title of the article. I would be lying if I told you that I structure it properly and know in advance what are the checks that I need to cover, however during the years I did build something that could be very loosely defined as a system. In the following paragraphs I will write about it and how you can implement something similar.

DISCLAIMER: I’m not a life coach nor do I plan pretending to be one.

I ask myself 4 questions:

• How do I feel?
• What annoys me?
• Can I change anything about annoying things or learn from them?
• What are my next steps?

How do I feel?

Pretty simple. How are you feeling as a human being, is there something bothering you? Think more about your emotions, actions caused from these emotions, how is it affecting your daily life. Try to rewind certain scenarios and how did they make you feel. Keep in mind to not focus only on the negative but also on positive side as well. Balance is the key.

What annoys me?

Make a short list of things that annoy you. Don’t go overboard, put only couple of them. For me focus lately, at least from work related side, is that due to various reasons I shifted more towards execution mode and I don’t have enough time as I would like to consider certain things and perhaps come up with better solutions. I also recognised a tendency of feeling too comfortable in this role and not motivated enough to change things for the better since it would be a big effort. One could even say afraid from showing signs of vulnerability if I don’t succeed in it.

Can I change anything about annoying things or learn from them?

The third question depends on the person. I like to add learning part to it since it’s my biggest motivation driver. I’ve recognised over years that I focus on negative sides more and this can blur the bigger picture. I’ve also recognised that no matter how bad or hopeless situation appears to be we can always learn from it and improve. Since I have already shared what annoys me, I will now share two simple goals that I have made for myself:

• Learn part: Get more proficient with log monitoring and troubleshooting
• Do part: Dedicate time blocks every week for ideas and improvements consideration

What are my next steps?

This highly depends on the previous question. If you don’t have answers to it then perhaps change of scenery should be considered. Next steps should be clear and small. Since I have recognised fear of vulnerability, my biggest goal is to address it. I started reading a really interesting book that I plan to cover in one of the next articles. It’s “Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder” by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. In which the author argues that some systems are strengthened by encounters with disorder.

What are your thoughts on self reflection? Let me know your answer in the comments section.

Thank you for reading,

Adnan