What Does Your Reflection Look Like?

I sat in a meeting at church recently and was asked to look back at those people in my life that have impacted me in some significant way. The speaker was challenging us to appreciate those who have poured into our lives and to pour into the lives of others. These are great ideas, but it was the reflection process itself that made me pause.

Reflection As A Habit

Until several years ago, I did not understand the value in reflection. It was then that I began restructuring my schedule to include a weekly review based on what I learned in David Allen’s book, Getting Things Done. Since that point, I have come to place a high value on reflection as a leader.

For the purpose of this discussion, I am defining reflection as the act of looking back over a period of time in order to assess your past performance as a leader, revise your current strategy, and determine your future actions. This habit can serve you well as a leader in the context of your family, business, community, etc.

What started out as a step in my weekly schedule turned into a habit that has served me well over the years. This habit of reflection has many benefits and can take on multiple forms at various intervals. Currently, this habit is a part of my weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual schedule.

Reflection Questions

While I don’t have the space to go into every aspect of my reflection habit, I do want to share with you some of the questions you should be asking of yourself at various intervals. This list of questions should get you started.

Of course, you should add some of your own questions. You also need to modify the time frames to fit your own schedule. Just make sure you are not ignoring this critical habit altogether!

Immediate Term
Looking back over the last week…

What worked for me? What did not work?
What distractions could I have avoided?
Whose counsel should I have sought, taken?
What can I apply to next week?

Short Term
Looking back over the past month(s) and year to date…

Where have I made progress?
Where have I lost ground?
What goals have I accomplished?
Which goals are still in progress?
What can I apply to the next several months?

Mid Term
Looking back over the past several years…

How have I changed for the better? Worse?
Where has God carried me?
Where has He let me fail (in order to learn)?
What trends should I be aware of?
What can I apply to the next several years?

Long Term
Looking back over the last 10 years or so…

How is my life different than now vs. then?
What differences do I like? What would I like to change?
Are the major trends taking me where I want to end up?
Where and when has God displayed his presence, faithfulness?
What can I apply to the next 10 years or so?

Eternal Term
Looking back over my entire life…

Do I look like what I believe God desires from me?
Where has He been able to impact others for eternity through me?
How have I been conformed to the likeness of Christ?
What major trends can I still change?
What can I apply to the rest of my life?

3 Recommended Actions

As I said earlier, this is not an exhaustive list. These questions should get you started. My suggestion is that you take three actions as a result of this post.

1. Take this list of questions and pray about them. Add to them, modify them, and delete them as you see fit. Finalize your own list – one that you feel best applies to who you are and what you need.

2. Determine the intervals when you will take the time to reflect on these questions. Depending on the interval, the time you need for reflection will vary. Your weekly review reflection may only take 30 minutes, but your annual reflection time might need to be a couple of hours. It’s your call.

3. Schedule your reflection times as appointments on your calendar. Understand that the further out you schedule, the more flexible you might need to be. Conflicts WILL come up. Just determine that you will only reschedule, not eliminate, the appointment.

If you are not already in the habit of regular reflection, I hope you take this idea and run with it. If you are, I hope that something you read here adds to your experience.

How much of a role does reflection currently play in your leadership habits?

What strikes you as the biggest benefit to reflection?

What steps will you take to add or improve on this habit?

photo by Lasse