Is Experience The Best Teacher?
Dec 19, 2022
"Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action."
--Peter Drucker
The leadership Law of Reflection says "Experience is not the best teacher; evaluated experience is the best teacher. Reflective thinking is needed to turn experience into insight." We must consciously set aside time every day to reflect on the day’s experiences and allow the understanding and lessons of those experiences to catch up with us. We only receive lessons from the past when we take time to sit down and reflect on them.
I think it was Einstein who said, "Insanity is doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results." Since 90% of what we do in life is habitual and we do it without thinking, reflection will help us develop the awareness for why we do it. We can only discover the reason for our habits (good and bad) and our current results if we take time to reflect on them. If we want to get different results, we have to do things differently.
As we look ahead to 2023, here is a process of reflection that I heard on a mentorship call that will help us get better results next year.
Start with these 3 activities:
1. Ask yourself: What were the top 10 lessons that I learned this year? Think about successes, struggles and positive and negative events.
2. Do a photo review of the year from January to the present. Go through EVERY SINGLE PHOTO on your phone! This will jog your memory to think of more lessons. Be sure to celebrate all wins!! (Going through my photos was the most fun!)
3. Review EVERY SINGLE DAY of your calendar from January to December and look for people, places or events and consider color coding them:
*Green - these events, places or people inspired, uplifted & motivated you (going forward you want to stack your calendar with these.)
*Yellow - neutral
*Red - Negativity happened - you do not want to habitually spend time with people or at events that drain you or have a negative impact.
Ask yourself these questions when reflecting on your calendar:
- What places did you go to this year?
- Which places did you love and what wins can I celebrate?
- Which places did you dislike (or even hate?)
- Where did you experience good energy, vibes & people?
As you go through the steps above, think about:
- the lessons you learned
- the things that made you cry
- the things that gave you exceeding joy
This may take some time, but it will certainly give you insight into what you desire for next year and help you weed out some events, people or places that didn't add value to your life.
You will learn lessons from 2022 that you won't have to repeat in 2023 because you took the time to grab insight from those lessons!
Holiday blessings to you,
Jan
Jan McDonald
Maxwell Leadership Certified Team
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