The Power of Reflection

As a former professor of Outdoor and Environmental Education, I lead many outdoor adventure trips that focused on the value of leadership, decision making and communication. At the end of each day but especially as a culminating debrief of the entire trip, I would ask students a variety of thought-provoking questions to draw out of them aspects of the trip that perhaps they did not consider on their own. Those reflective discussions were where the real revelations and judgments were unearthed.

I had a student once that said “I don’t know how to reflect”. My question to you is, do you know how to reflect? Reflection IS the process of making sense of an event that just happened, an experience you just had or even an encounter you had with someone. What went well; what didn’t go well; what would you differently the next time, what was gained from the overall experience? Often times there will not be someone else to draw out those reflective questions but with practice, you will gain the insight to identify those areas that need attention and those that you already have to take with you to the next situation.

The power of reflection is using what you learned and gained from the previous experience and apply it to future events. Growth occurs when you use what you gained and make the appropriate adjustments to get better and be better in the next round.