Chief Vision Officer and Founder of Keystone Group International.
In today’s fast-paced world, most of us are looking for the quickest, easiest and most convenient way to do anything. And that includes achieving professional growth. We listen to podcasts or audiobooks while we are running or driving, we read that article while sitting at the kid’s soccer game or we sign up for a virtual class on something and multi-task throughout the entire thing.
Our intentions are in the right place, but the results of our growth and learning are often not being maximized. Growth does not come from checking boxes and achieving things. Growth comes from exposing yourself to new ideas, perspectives and beliefs and then reflecting on what you have learned and how it can help you grow and evolve. When was the last time you took 30 minutes to just reflect on something and think about where you could incorporate it into your life or career? Reflection will not just happen unless you create the space for it. We will just continue to move quickly from one thing to the next and not stop to reflect and recognize professional growth opportunities.
Here are four tips to carve out more reflection time in your workweek to drive a greater sense of growth.
1. Take an intentional break. Block focus time out on your calendar. So many of us believe that our worth is in being busy when our worth and our confidence come from having clarity. So, while it might feel selfish to block two to three hours a week off on your calendar for focus, it’s truly what your organization, your employees and you deserve. Taking that time to reflect, grow and solve can create greater value than one more meeting ever will.
2. Write it down. Forcing yourself to keep a journal or even a document on your computer of learnings can force you to stop and think while you are writing it down. Because you can’t write down your reflections and learnings while you are doing something else, this also forces your brain to focus. In my experience, people tend to be more committed to things that they write down than things they think about. I have an entrepreneur friend who has a full document on his computer of ideas, quotes and things he’s learned. He takes five minutes every single morning to review it because it helps him stay focused and ensures he is committing to growing each day.
3. Tell someone. Find an accountability and growth partner to talk through things with. Maybe you connect every couple of weeks, and you call them on a walk or a drive to reflect with them about what’s happening, where you are struggling and even what growth you have made or need to make. Find someone to verbalize it with you, and oftentimes, you will come to the answer yourself just by talking it out.
4. Take action. Don’t just put yourself in the growth situation; decide what you want to get out of it. You could be facing a tough situation at work and want to spend time reflecting on and planning what to do next and how to communicate your thoughts. Growth doesn’t typically happen when you hear a new idea, concept or issue. Growth happens when you do something different or better than you did last week. Growth happens when you decide to take a different and more informed action.
Reflection doesn’t have to be complicated, but it does have to be intentional. You must intentionally create the space for it to happen. When you take the time to learn something new or shift your perspective, you owe it to yourself to take the time for reflection to allow that growth idea to truly impact you. As a mentor once told me, life is about a series of tradeoffs—things that might feel painful in the short term but bring pride in the long term. Make sure you are making the right tradeoffs with your time and your professional growth.
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