The Importance Of Self Reflection And How It Can Help Shape Your Future

As we come to the end of another year its natural for us to look back on everything we’ve done, or haven’t done over the past eleven months. This process of self reflection can go on all year round but for me December is a time where I really look back and take stock of what’s happened over the year, was it a good year? Did I achieve everything I had set out to do? What did I accomplish? Did I learn anything? Did I make the most of the opportunities that presented themselves to me? What do I need to change? And the list goes on …

This year has been a strange one for me. I’ve experienced some of the highest highs and also the lowest lows. It’s been a year (so far) full of laughter and tears, joy and sorrow. As someone said to me not too long ago ‘That’s life’ and I guess it is, good things and bad things are always going to happen to us, it’s how we deal with them that’s important.

This is why self-reflection is important to me. I can’t control much of what goes on around me but I can control how I deal with certain situations. For me self-reflection is a valuable way to find out more about myself, to gain a better understanding of my emotions, my strengths, my weaknesses, my goals and values and having a better understanding of me and how I tick helps me to adapt to changing situations and challenging times when they do occur whether they be personal or professional. During emotional and stressful times our integrity can take a bit of a hammering so if we have a clear understanding of what our values are and what is important to us it can help us make better decisions.

Self-reflection can be hard, it requires us to strip back and be brutally honest with ourselves. As I look back on 2017 I’d have to say that it has been a year of change, it’s also been a year where I haven’t put myself or my wants and needs at the top of the agenda. This is however, something I’ve started to address and will continue to focus on going into the New Year.

When I reflect on the year gone by I tend to divide areas of my life into three sections: Love and Relationships, Work and Finances and Health and Wellbeing, although not necessarily in that order. Then I write down a list of questions I’d like answers to. These can range from anything from what are the goals I’d like to achieve and what is stopping me from achieving these goals? To what am I most proud of and grateful for?

If this year has taught me anything it’s that life is short and although we may think we have all the time in the world to say the things we should or do the things we want to do time isn’t something that is promised to us and that’s why we have to make every moment count. We have to appreciate all the good things and people in our lives and have the courage to change the things that don’t serve us anymore and taking the time to reflect can be a very important first step in helping us do this.