Questions to ask During Reflection Time

Well, it’s almost March, and I’m still doing journal prompts pretty regularly. 

A recent one prompted me to write about what was going right in my life. 

My first response: That one is tough.

I feel like most of the things I am doing are only at ¾ strength. Is there anything really going right?

I decided to focus on the good, and then pick one thing I can do better.

My morning routine is going right. I don’t snooze. I get up, use the bathroom, and get dressed in my work-out clothes. I drink 20-30 ounces of warm lemon water while I do my version of the 5 second journal and visualization that I learned from Mel Robbins. Only after I have spent some time envisioning my bests self, do I check my phone. I spend a few minutes looking at notifications and emails. Then, I do a 30 minute workout while listening to a story on my iPod. Some people listen to music or podcasts while exercising, but fluff stories are my go-to. I have so many other things I listen to or read during the day so this is really the only time I can listen to something fun. Plus it is something I look forward to. Finally, I study in my scriptures for 20-30 minutes. I have been doing a workout and scripture study consistently for-e-ver and just recently added the other stuff. So far so good.

One area I can improve in is inspiring math. Two four people are frustrated and fighting me which means we need to shake things up a little. How to inspire math, though? I found an activity from Math Inspirations that might be fun for all of us to try on Friday. I can also get a few books at the library that that might help us look at math a different way. And I need to check out a Pinterest and a few YouTube videos for some more ideas. There is also a TEDx talk that would be good to re-watch.

I found this exercise of reflection really powerful. I picked something that was going right and then found something going not so good and brainstormed a few ways to make it better. But I didn’t just brainstorm, I applied. We’ve started doing a few things differently in regards to math and I hope my kids are feeling a little inspired.

I don’t do this type of thinking very often, but after this experience I think I’d like to implement it more into my routine. Some people do it once a year—usually at the end of the year as they think about the goals they want to accomplish for the new year. Others do it once a month or weekly or even daily.

I like the idea of doing it weekly. On Sunday, when I create my schedule for the week, I could reflect on the past week and make a plan for improvement. I think this process will help me be focused on the things that matter and come up with out of the box solutions to problems.

Here are a few questions I will start asking myself to help get the juices flowing.

• What was my most memorable day?
• What did I learn last week?
• What went well in my focus areas (relationships, personal, business and financial)?
• Where can I improve in those areas?
• What could I have done differently?
• What is my focus and intention next week?
• What are my goals for next week?
• What do I look forward to? 
• What is one thing I can be excellent at? (not 75%)

How often do you reflect? Share your process in the comments below.