Reflection is an important part of learning
I’m not very good at reflecting.
Actually, I’m not very good at scheduling reflection time for myself. When it actually comes time to do the reflection, I do alright. The problem is that I feel like it takes so much time that I really don’t want to schedule the time. And then when I do schedule the time, it is usually interrupted by one thing or another. Either I interrupt myself or I am interrupted by somebody for something they want. It can be very frustrating.
One of the reasons for reflecting is so that you can learn from the past. Reflecting helps you tease out some learnings and determine how you can act in the future. In many cases there are things you can do that can help you in your efforts to be better. Getting feedback from others can be fodder that can help you see things from another perspective and help you focus on what is most important in your reflection.
Reflection also helps you project. By taking time to think about how things could be, you can play out situations in your mind. You will look at what you have done and how people reacted. This is probably one of the most common tropes used in time travel stories. Groundhog Day was an entire movie about how a person played out different scenarios, just in his case they actually happened. In our case we play them out in our mind and hope that the actions and reactions we imagine are accurate.
Philosophers like Aristotle and Plato used reflection and deep thinking to tease out many of the social issues which afflicted mankind. They thought and played out the causes and the consequences of peoples actions as both individuals as well as societies. It is no wonder they are considered some of the greatest thinkers in history. It is worth emulating their example.
The image, titled “How is the weather today”, was taken by “Kristina Alexanderson”. You can find it on flickr.
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