7 Ways Being Self-Reflective Can Help You in Your Career
Research shows that 95% of people believe they are self-aware.
Yet, only 12%-15% actually are.
So essentially, most people think they know themselves and how they are perceived by others, but most of them are wrong… about themselves.
Why is this important?
Well, self-aware people are more confident, more creative, create stronger relationships, get more promotions, among many other things.
Now, I could write a whole post about self-awareness itself.
But for this post, the main point is:
Developing self-awareness is key to being successful in your career.
And yet, more than 80% of us could use a little self-awareness boost!
One way that I have developed my own self-awareness is through the practice of self-reflection.
What does that mean?
Self-reflection is the act of assessing yourself as objectively as possible through introspection.
It is sort of like trying to see yourself from another person’s perspective, but that person can also hear your thoughts and feel your feelings.
If done honestly, self-reflection can be a great tool to become more self-aware.
When would self-reflection be the most useful?
I believe self-reflection is great when something about your outlook does not line up with you internally or externally, be it your environment or other people.
Below are some examples of how using self-reflection can be super beneficial.
1. You can see that you are “stuck” sooner
Did you or someone you know have a time where things were going alright for a while, but then you look back, and realize, “I am not happy. How did I get here?”
This is a great case of NOT being self-aware.
It is more likely that things were not going alright for a long time.
However, either something drastic happened or life simply passed you by when the sudden “How did I get here” realization took you by surprise .
Self-reflection is great for times like these.
It can help us bring unconscious thoughts and feelings to the surface in our own time, rather than having to wait for some emotional or external crisis to rock our world.
Using self-reflection on a regular basis gives you the space to assess if you are truly “doing alright” or if you are really just “stuck” and could use a little change to make things better.
2. You can soak in feedback more effectively
It is usually a great thing to get feedback.
Feedback is a source of information about how people are perceiving you that can help you be the best employee, manager, or leader.
However, we also know that change can be hard.
Actually taking in a piece of feedback, especially when it goes against your intuition or encourages you to go outside your comfort zone, can be difficult.
Using self-reflection can help you analyze why that feedback is so tough for you to process and what might happen if you do follow the feedback.
Even if the first time you try something new may not be perfect, keep practicing self-reflection to help you process and apply the feedback, so you can course-correct quickly.
3. You can process an emotional or hard conversation quicker
We have all been there.
We have had hard conversations with a boss, a disagreement with a coworker , or even a hard time getting along with those closest to us in our personal lives.
Things may have gotten heated.
Perhaps you said some things you didn’t mean to say.
At the very least, these conversations can shake you a bit.
At the extreme, these things can be hard to come back from.
Self-reflection can help you process the events that lead up to the hard conversation, what happened during the event, and perhaps what you could have done differently.
These conversations can be hard in the moment, but using self-reflection can give you insights into what you can do next time you see that boss, coworker, or close friend/relative.
4. You can prepare for a situation that scares you
Say you have a big interview coming up.
You want to make sure that you are putting your best foot forward.
You want to appear confident and not look like a bundle of nerves!
Using self-reflection can help you organize the points you will want to make clear during the interview and work through any fears that you have.
Getting all your thoughts outside of your head will make it easier for you to confront them and use them to your advantage.
5. You can celebrate your successes intentionally
As human beings, we discount the joys that come with success.
We latch onto the negatives that come with failure.
That’s just our survival instinct.
However, it is important to celebrate our successes.
The feelings that come with success are usually fleeting because we are thinking about what is coming next or all the things we could have done better.
But, success only comes around so often.
Celebrating those successes can make us feel accomplished, grateful, and uplifted to continue on.
Since these feelings are usually fleeting, you might as well capitalize on the celebration as much as possible before moving on.
Self-reflecting on the wins can help us continue to feel awesome longer.
6. You can learn from mistakes in a structured way
Of course, as human beings, we are not perfect.
We make mistakes.
That’s just life.
But, we can always learn from those mistakes.
Especially if that mistake was made while learning a new skill, developing a new relationship, or working at a new company.
Self-reflection can help you dissect the mistake that you made.
You can assess the circumstances that lead to the mistake, process what happened when the mistake was made, and give yourself recommendations for what to do next time.
7. You can dive into a new realization
Have you ever been in a situation where you are talking to a friend, watching a show, or doing something completely mundane, and you have that “a-ha” moment.
A moment when something just clicks.
It may not be obvious what clicked, but that moment of clarity is so precious.
However, if you don’t write it down or continue down that rabbit hole to make sense of it, that clarity will fade away quickly.
Using self-reflection can give you the space to explore that “a-ha” moment, to figure out what it means, and what insight it may have for you.
There are so many situations and moments where being self-reflective can be a great practice.
But the one similarity between all these circumstances is that self-reflection always encourages us to look inside ourselves or our external environments to become more self-aware of our own actions, thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
By regularly engaging in self-reflection, you too can develop your self-awareness, and reap the benefits we talked about at the beginning of this blog.
Which benefit could you use right about now? Write your thoughts in the comments.
