Why reflect?
- Acknowledge our good fortune
- Appreciation for the good things that happen
- Our brains are wired where the unusual (usually bad thing) sticks around in our memory way longer than the good thing, but in reality more good things likely happen to you more than you typically remember. Don’t let those good experiences evaporate while letting the bad things remain and fester. By taking 10 minutes to reflect on them each evening, you can capture and appreciate your good fortune and correct the natural imbalance that exists.
- Remember more amazing experiences that you otherwise would have forgotten.
- Unpack who we are
- Determine what we want in life
- Be more aware of when we don’t do what we set out to do
- Try to figure out why
- Leave breadcrumbs for the future
- Little cues that are like portals back to this space and time
- Lays the foundation that you need to go back and see the progress you’ve made that is otherwise invisible.
- Prior to this year I had never done a yearly review (go check out 2021 In Review), but because of daily and weekly reflection, my year in review was a painless and rewarding experience.
- When I go to do reflection, I often end up on a mental tangent, but never do I regret the exercise. It always leads me in an interesting direction.
If you have never done daily reflection before, I highly recommend Stoic. It is an iOS app that I started using after getting my iPad in March 2021. Since then, they now also have a MacOS App. I no longer use it because I figured out what prompts I wanted, but it was an excellent way to get started in intention setting and reflection when I had no idea where to start.