Three Main Points For The Habit of Self-Reflection; Proud of Yourself

What are the tips for making your dreams come true?

It has already been some months since we celebrated 2022. Have you been progressing with your goals, dreams, or achievements that you made with excitement for the new year?

“Oh… I didn’t do much again because of overwork.”
“Ah… I have wasted time by just watching YouTube again.”

Aren’t you disappointed yourself because you couldn’t do much of what you wanted to do, or you were not able to achieve your goal today?

The habit of “Self-Reflecion” is the key to make your dreams come true. If you have a habit of “Self-Reflection”, you could find how you grow yourself and you could be proud of yourself.

I would like to introduce some of my tips to have a habit of self-reflection, and a habit of being proud of yourself to make a progress toward your dreams at your own pace.

What is “Self-Reflection” & How does it effects

“What is Self-Reflection?”
First of all, I would like to explain about “Self-Reflection”.

“Self-Reflection” is to think back about your thoughts or behaviors. Self-Reflection helps you to be aware of your values and feelings objectively by thinking back about your thoughts and behaviors. As well as it affects self-understanding or self-initiative.

It is important to understand your conditions objectively when you want to achieve your goals when you want to make your dreams come true. You can realize your correct direction if your way is wrong from your goals by thinking back to yourself.

By self-reflection, you can take a look at yourself, fix your direction and make your next action clear. This reflection cycle will lead to reaching your dreams.

So, how can we practice “Self-reflection” specifically?

Making a Habit is the Key

As I mentioned above, Self-Reflection is to think back about your thoughts or behaviors, and also to understand your conditions.

When you talk about “Taking a look at yourself”, you might find “I couldn’t do well this week”, or “I was not good about that”, and might feel bad about yourself or unwilling to think back yourself. However, you don’t need to worry about it.

“Self-Reflection” is different from “Regret”, which is thinking over good or bad about your behavior and changing your behavior if it is wrong. The point is that you should think more about how your feeling changes or how you growth by focusing on what you did, not only what you couldn’t do.

Furthermore, only one time or two times self-reflection is not enough to understand how you change your feelings and your growth.

I recommend you do self-reflection continuously and make it a habit in your life.

Make Self-Reflection a Habit Comfortably

Currently, I'm learning about writing, marketing, and other skills while working for a company to be able to work free from a time and location in the future.

I joined the online school called “SHElikes” where you can learn mainly some web skills, and I started to learn with the school to make my ideal workstyle and lifestyle come true.

【補助金活用で最大70%還元】SHElikes (シーライクス)　無料体験レッスン受付中

3 months since I joined SHElikes, I thought I was doing well learning by myself little by little, however, one day I was getting worried about if I am really doing well or not.

I felt like “Did I progress in the lessons?”, “Am I growing with something?” 

I wanted to release that anxiety, so I started to do Self-Reflection. Thinking back on what I did regularly. Now, I’m getting release my vague feelings of worry and anxious gradually by taking Self-Reflection a habit in my life.

There are 3 keys that I made Self-Reflection a habit.

・Make it Monthly Routine
・Don't regret too much what you have done
・Set it up with something that you like

Make it Monthly Routine

First, I make a schedule for Self-Reflection on the last weekend of every month. I put specific time for Self-Reflection in advance and make it kind of an event for myself every month. I think it is easier to make a schedule just once a month.

Normally I do self-reflection by thinking back a month while looking at my diary or calendar to remember my days.

・What I have done?
（What I learned, What I completed on my To-Do list, etc..）
・What I haven’t done?
（What I didn't go as planned, What I wanted to try but couldn't, etc..）
・Unplanned but newly updated knowledge, experience, and what made me happy
・Put into a schedule for next month what you want to do in efforts
・Make a list of what you want to do besides work and study

And another practice to make Self-Reflection a monthly habit is taking a coaching session at SHElikes. At SHElikes, you can take a coaching session every month so that you can make your next action clearly by understanding current your situation such as how you progress, how changes your values, and how you want to make a plan from now.
 
I take this coaching session opportunity to share my feelings and thoughts from self-reflection with a coach and other attendances and listen to their opinions.

By having a third-party perspective, I realized that some changes in my feelings that I didn’t even know, or what I had perceived negatively can be turned positively with just how you think. The interactions with other students also help you keep motivated to study to achieve your dreams.

Even if you are not in an online school, you may want to join a community that suits you, where you can meet others with similar goals. It can be another way to make self-reflection a habit and you take an opportunity to think back on yourself while communicating with someone.

Don't Regret too much What You have Done

When we couldn’t achieve our goals, don't we tend to judge ourselves strictly? What I’m conscious of when I do self-reflection is not too much focus on what I couldn’t do, but being aware of what I have done and what I worked so hard for. As for what I couldn’t do well, it will be okay if I take an action to fix it in the next month.

The key point of Self-Reflection without any self-hatred is focusing on what you have done better this month even if it wasn’t going well as planned.

Regrets yourself is not the purpose of this self-reflection, the purpose is to look back at traces of your effort for a month, and then make your next action clear, which is what you want to do in the following month.

By recognizing traces of your effort and changes in your feelings, you will get confidence or accomplishment even a little. That helps you keep motivated to move on.

Set it up with something you like

Lastly, what I value for self-reflection is “a sense of excitement”.

Self-Reflection is one of the steps to bring you closer to your dreams. Thus, it should not be forcing yourself, it would be fun as an exciting initiative work with dreaming about the person you want to be.

For example, I take in the following elements when I work on self-reflection.

・Work at a favorite cafe
・With a favorite drink at home to be relaxing
・On a bench at the park when walking
・After making a plan for next month, having a favorite sweet to get energy to move on next step
・Yoga and meditation to release my mind and body

You can make your self-reflection habit with your exciting situations.

To Get Closer to Your Ideal Self

By making a habit of self-reflection and making time for yourself, you will get to know deeply about yourself, which gets much closer to making your dream come true.

As you know, we are busy in our daily life and we don't take enough time to see our feelings or look back on our days, and as a result, our days pass quickly before we know.

Pause periodically, fix your way if you were on the wrong way, praise yourself for your improvement, and move on closer to your dream step by step. Aren't you getting excited when you imagine that you are getting closer to your dream?

As a first small step toward your dream, make a habit of your self-reflection just once a month at your favorite place.

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