Why It's Important to Stop and Reflect

A poem many of us may know begins with the line "What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare?" We are all in such a rush to get to our next destination we have no time to stop and reflect on where we have been and what we have done. There always the fear that if we stop the others who keep on going will overtake us and we will be left behind in life's race. But suppose we could do even better with less need to rush along?

Reflection is a huge part of the learning process. And the more knowledge you have, the more power you wield. This knowledge may provide you a way to stop rushing along with the others and find a simpler method of achieving success without the need to always keep running.

All our lives are lived in stages. We are infants who learn by observing how others behave. Then we go to school where a formal system of teaching us begins and continues for twelve years. Some of us go on to college for another few years before working. Our working lives too are a series of stages, with one promotion and change of work after another, until we retire. In each stage we do the best we can with the tools and knowledge at our disposal. But we could have more and be better equipped.

Hindsight has a very negative connotation. But if can also be used for good. Taking time to reflect on things that happened in the past using the hindsight of the knowledge and experience you have gained since then, will often show you ways in which you could have improved you performance in the past. So what good does that do you now? Well, suppose you look back to the first time you baked a cake. Whatever the results may have been, good or bad, looking back after a few years of cooking experience behind you will allow you to see ways that in which you could have produced a better cake that time. Now suppose you have done this exercise after your second baking attempt. The second attempt will be better than the first, because you have learned more. But if you had reflected in detail on the first attempt, you may have found still more areas for improvement than the obvious ones you picked up on. The third cake will not just be an improvement on the second but will be the result of all that you have learned from your pervious experiences. This will not only help you to do better, but will give you the confidence to think of ways to reduce the work involved and make things easier for yourself. In other words, a way out of the race to keep up.

You need not always reflect alone. Sitting with other to analyze the past means more minds focused on the issue which will result in a great understanding of what you need to do in the future. The more minds shining their light on a past situation, the more light the past will shed on the present.

Reflection does not mean looking back and beating yourself up for the mistakes you made or the opportunities you let slip through your fingers. Those have all long since been lost in the mists of time and there's nothing you can do about them. But being able to look back and use the knowledge you have acquired since then to understand how you can improve today is the base of future success.