Hit Pause, It’s Time to Reflect

It’s perfectly normal to experience times when you aren’t happy or satisfied with where your life is going, no matter how many goals you may have accomplished. The point of reflection is to ensure you are satisfied with the direction as you achieve each goal.

Without really trying things then you really never know what you might or might not like. It’s only natural to change course if you don’t. Evaluation and reflection also highlight areas you are likely doing wrong that is actually causing the process to fail.

Furthermore, self-reflection is an essential resource to your business because:

•  It builds confidence and self-efficacy.
•  It reduces stress and improves clarity.
•  It improves your goals and business processes.
•  It saves time and allows you to be more productive.

The following are a few ways to hit the pause button and reflect to better your business and yourself:

Ask Yourself Repeated Questions

Start the process by asking yourself open-ended questions. Meaning you can’t just answer yes or no. They need to inspire you to deep dive into your processes, goals, and aspirations to ensure you are on the right path for the success you want to achieve.

The following are a few ideas to get you started:

•  What’s working right now that I should continue?”
•  What didn’t work that I should change or adjust?”
•  What’s one new thing I have learned?”
•  What emotions did I experience, and how have they affected my work?”
•  What made me the proudest overall?”

Each of these questions is designed to analyze your actions and results and see how they compare to your ultimate goals and wants in life. For it to work, you can’t hold back and must commit to being honest. Accountability and ownership are two of the most important core values of productivity. As without them, you won’t take the right actions to get started or redesign your strategies.

Apply Solutions to Your Answers

After you answer each question, you need to take notice and action on whether you need to stick to your plan or change course. If you are experiencing more emotions than usual, for example, then it’s likely you need to add another routine or adjust a bad habit to make your day easier, less overwhelming, or bothersome.

Ignore Your Business for Once

One of the most important steps of self-evaluation is to forget about your business or job for once. While you may be passionate about your business, it’s not you or your life. It’s there to fuel the life you want. What do you and your body really need to achieve happiness, and why?

As you go through this process, it’s important to note that each time the experience will be, and should be, different to see results. Block time from your schedule and don’t utilize off-days. You need to set adequate time blocks and commit to the process to achieve ultimate happiness and success.