How to use Considering and Reflection as a Tool for Progress

Today I want to chat about considering and reflection. We have spent some time over the past several days talking about action, and not spending too much time planning. However, taking the time to consider and reflect is almost as important to me as the actions themselves.

What is Considering and Reflection?

They are two distinct parts to continue to craft your dream life. Considering is the act of understanding what is to come. Some might compare it to planning, but it is so much more to me. You must understand all the variables of life, try to fit the pieces together, and recognize when some pieces need to be moved or discarded entirely.

Reflection, on the other hand is the considering after the doing. That is the time when you revisit your plans to figure out whether they have worked, or if they need adjustments. You achieve this in several ways. Daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly are all time periods that work for reflection. And all have different purposes.

Considering and reflection help you to see where you are making progress, as well as the areas you need to improve. When you set goals, when you implement habits and rhythms, that isn’t the end point for your dream life. You have to continue to adjust. Life is fluid, and with that you are always going to have little tweaks you need to make in order to continue to make progress.

The Struggle

The struggle with considering and reflecting is that it is hard – especially if it isn’t already a part of your life. When you sit down to be introspective you can easily feel like you aren’t doing enough. And we have just talked the past couple of days about spending more time doing and less time planning. But, the reflection is a big part of the doing. I don’t consider it inaction in the same way that planning can be.

Why? Because you need to have data to understand if the changes you are making, the projects you are doing, make sense for you and your family. You can come up with great action plans, implement them exactly as written, but still feel completely stuck. Without the act of considering why these action plans aren’t working, without reflecting on the plans themselves, you will not see where you need to make changes.

A growth mindset is all about the willingness to change. In fact, that is a big part of crafting your dream life. You are actively making changes in order to live a life you love. But, what if your first round of goals and plans aren’t delivering for you? How to make adjustments if you aren’t reflecting and adjusting along the way?

Remember, life is fluid. It is ever-changing. You will have bumps along the way, and the considering and reflection you do on a regular basis will help you make decisions to change things up as needed, rather than waiting.

Considering and Reflection: An Example

I am going to bring an example back to homeschooling. When you plan out the year, you take time to research all of the different curriculum and resources available. You look at each of your kids and choose what will work for them, or at least what you think will work best for your family and schedule. The work has been done, you are good to go, you don’t need to think about curriculum and resources again until the next school year!

But, then you start school. The books you chose are incredibly dry and boring to your kids. The flow of your day isn’t working as you expected. There are tears, and you are tearing your hair out by lunch each day.

What are your choices? Well, you can continue to push through. We are able to push through quite a lot, and it is absolutely possible to do that. But, when you push through, no one is happy. Alternatively, you can adjust. But, in order to adjust, you need to sit down for some considering and reflection. Why are things not working as planned? What changes can be made quickly in order to have more peace in the home? And how can we move forward with new plans?

Do you see how you can push through anything? But it won’t be a happy time if you are just trying to get through things. However, you can make the adjustments, you can take the time to figure out why things aren’t working and what you can do to make it better. That is the point of taking the time to consider and reflect on all areas of life, not just homeschooling.

The Bottom Line

When you take the time for considering and reflection you can make the little changes necessary to improve your days. It doesn’t have to be big, broad changes in your life. Can it be? Absolutely! And when you sit down and consider your life in general, you may see those big changes that you want to make. Those would be goals to make progress on.

But, beyond the big life changes, there are little adjustments to me made in your habits, in your rhythms and systems. These little tweaks and changes add up to big rewards in your life.

When you are able to make these little changes in a much more frequent basis, you are making the decisions necessary to create that life you want to live for you and your family. Remember, it doesn’t have to be big sweeping change. It can be, but it can also be those little moments.

Life is really made up of those little moments, and taking the time to consider and reflect on these will give you so much more life satisfaction than trying to push through just because you already created a plan and you want to follow the plan.

Do you take time for considering and reflection within your life? How might this help you to continue to move in the direction you want your life to go?