Coaching Yourself: The art of self-reflection
I recently ran a series of posts over on Instagram on on how Pop Culture metaphors feature in my coaching. A key theme coming out of the series was the importance of understanding yourself, and looking inward in order to live authentically. Doing this requires a lot of self-reflection, but this isn’t a skill that’s taught in school, and in my experience a lot of people don’t really know how to do it effectively.
So here’s a guide…
How to self-reflect
You can also check this content out as part of a new series over on Instagram…
Learning how to self-reflect effectively, including being really honest with yourself about what you’re finding, is a long process (probably a lifelong piece of learning!), but there’s definitely some key steps that you can take to start your journey, or even step your self reflection up to the next level…
Step 1: Make time
Carve out some real, protected time for the process. Ideally this at least an hour, with some free space either side so you don’t feel rushed, rather than a few minutes snatched between meetings or before school pickup, but a bit of time is better than no time. Over time as you become more confident at settling into the right headspace quickly (see Step 2), shorter bouts of reflection become more useful,
Step 2: Challenge your headspace
To reflect effectively, it helps to be in a good frame of mind. So maybe don’t pick a day when you’re preparing for a really stressful meeting or had a few too many the night before. If meditation, mindfulness or yoga is your thing, maybe try a bit of that first. A great way to get into a more creative or different mindset can be to change your surroundings – maybe sit outside or on a sofa instead of at your desk to switch things up. Also recognise what emotion you’re bringing to your reflection time - are you already feeling bad about yourself for something? What do you need to do to put that aside and come to your reflection time with positive intent?
Step 3: Start exploring
It’s at this stage you can start reflecting on whatever it is that’s on your mind. And if you’re not sure what that is, sometimes a really powerful question can be ‘What’s the most important thing for me to spend this time thinking about?’, and see where your mind takes you.
When could you carve out some time to start reflecting and understanding yourself better?
