No time to think
How often do you run into this issue?
Have you ever felt like there's no time to stop, think, reflect and process the circumstances you're facing? And that marching on barely able to keep up seems like the only option?
This seems cultural; it’s experienced across gender, race and income level.
The struggle is that there is too much to do and not enough time to do it. And thinking, more precisely, reflective thinking, must take a back seat for us to keep up.
Educator John Dewey once wrote, “We do not learn from experience... we learn from reflecting on experience.”
The quality of our learning and our impact on ourselves and others is intimately linked to the quality and amount of self-reflection we do.
With no time to think and reflect, we do not learn; we are stuck with old thinking, repeating the same thought patterns.
Self-reflection is an underrated and most powerful skill. It's the process of asking oneself challenging questions, staying present, open and curious about what comes up.
For our experiences to be rich and dynamic — not repeating the same old patterns — self-reflection is crucial. Without it, no fresh thinking is possible.
Effective self-reflection requires another essential skill: self-awareness.
Self-awareness takes us to another level: it provides us opportunities to truly see and be with who we are, separate from the expectations and pressures surrounding us. It helps release the structures that limit our flow of meaning.
In a culture that predominately idolizes metrics, objectives, actions and results, self-reflection and self-awareness are often confused with fluffy and unnecessary practices that hold us back.
It turns out the opposite is true. Together, these skills are proven to increase our performance, which means their lack is a severe disadvantage. A life without these skills is similar to trying to express ourselves in a foreign language: we can get by, get ourselves heard and maybe even understood, but we will work much harder to get things done and get where we need to be.
These skills aren't necessary, but they are required to lead greatly. They are direly needed in our leaders, teams and organizations.
As long as we continue to cling to every second, we will have no time to think.
If you don’t know me yet, I work with leaders and high performers and help them deepen these skills so they may show up more fully, be happier and fulfilled, and perform better while tackling the change they seek to make.
Miguel,
Sparknotion – Think Differently.