Reading Time: 4 minutesA great way to think about the Reflection habit in the Whole Life Challenge is as your conscious daily acknowledgment of being in the process. Treat it as a part of your day where you consider what your actions in the Challenge provided you today — something you did that represents you being on the path. It’s looking back at the day and pulling out the gold from each day.
You might share something you did that was new and exciting or something you are particularly proud of.
- Maybe a moment in your day when your commitment to care for yourself guided your decisions. Starting to drink black coffee rather than caramel lattes in the morning, for example
- Maybe the first time you were able to say “no” to a destructive habit you’ve fallen for every time before. Could be that you went straight to the gym after work before talking yourself into going home.
- Maybe today was the day when a new habit made a noticeable impact on your life—your improved sleep habits making an obvious difference in your mood or quality of work.
Consider where you “won” today and reflect specifically on what you did and what you changed that got you there. It’s a great way to capture the patterns of success.
You can also reflect on something you did that you wouldn’t do again, somewhere where maybe you fell short of your commitment to yourself.
- If you did something you didn’t intend to do, your Reflection is a great opportunity to consider why. For example, what sort of payoff do you think there is for you to have not only once slice of an office-mate’s birthday cake, but two? What part of you do you think would you need to face if you “stood your ground” with yourself?
- If you believe you’re making a sincere effort and are not happy with the results you see, your Reflection can be a chance to intentionally and consciously let go of any judgments you have made about yourself. It might be a chance to explore the value of the journey as the destination and to acknowledge yourself for your willingness to take care of yourself.
The most important thing, we think, is to practice Reflection without judgment. In the course of growth, things will happen that you didn’t plan on — that is 100% normal, expected, and okay. We cannot say this enough times. When you are trying new things, when you are stretching to be bigger than you were before, you will fall down. Some will say that if you don’t, you’re not pushing yourself enough, that you’re only doing what you already know how to do.
What matters is that you are on the journey, you are developing your awareness and attention, and you are making an authentic effort in different ways each day to improve the quality of your life and lifestyle. Your Reflection is a place where you can capture the growth part of any experience you had.
If that all seems like too big a bite for you right now, that’s okay. You could use your Reflection to describe your favorite compliant dessert, your best ten-minute “get it in” exercise routine, or how mobilizing is making you feel.
Your Reflection doesn’t need to be “deep,” and it will help you the most if it is truthful and would be meaningful if you read it in the future.
The only Reflection that doesn’t have a place in the Reflection Feed is the intensely personal one, the one you never want anyone else to read. As we detail in our article Privacy – What Can Others See?, your teammates will always be able to read your Reflections. You can control whether your Reflections appear on the World Feed, though. Check the linked article for all the details.
Use your daily Reflection as an opportunity to take an objective look at your day so you can make a plan to have a more joyful tomorrow.
He graduated from UCLA with a BA in philosophy as well as a degree from the Southern California School of Culinary Arts, and feels food is one of the most important parts of a life - it can nourish, heal, and bring people together.
Michael believes health and well-being are as much a state of mind as they are a state of the body, and when it comes to fitness, food, and life in general, he thinks slow is much better than fast (most of the time). Stopping regularly to examine things is the surest way to put down roots and grow.
He knows he will never be done with his own work, and believes the best thing you can do for your well-being starts with loving and working from what you’ve got right now.
