Can self reflection be a life hack for success?

Is self reflection a life hack for success?

“Without reflection we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful” – Margaret J Wheatly

It is increasingly preferred by people to keep themselves busy or occupied in their everyday lives, often adding a sense of routine or a planned way of doing things. After all, who doesn’t enjoy a well set routine and life on autopilot mode? While a planned way of living life could be productive to streamline smaller daily decisions, over the course of time living on autopilot can come with a hidden cost on the growth trajectory of your life and overall well being.

According to a UK based study, 96% of the sample population that participated in the study said that they live their life on autopilot. What started as an evolutionary mechanism and helped us avoid excess brian load, autopilot is now becoming a growing problem pushing people to sleepwalk their choices in life. How can you break from this pattern of living by default and start to live by designing your own life? An active practice of self reflection can help.

Here are four reasons why Self reflection can serve as a life hack for successful living :

1. It can help you avoid drift syndrome 

When you include any decisions in your life without actually consciously deciding, you are actually creating a drift reality – one that you have pretty much no clue about and no control over. Typically drift can occur when we are bogged down by external events or circumstances, when choosing to avoid a conflict with the external realities and also when we don’t have clarity on what we truly want. Self reflection can help you mindfully steer away from living a drift reality and help you align with your growth objectives.

2. Live a purposeful life

Often in the hustle of our daily life, we misinterpret our immediate passions around our job, our recreational pursuits and our family time as our purpose. While it’s good to live your everyday life with passion, purpose is a lot more than a routine that you enjoy. Taking the time to reflect on your bigger dreams and goals will help you align with them in action and live a purposeful life.

3. Get a zoomed out view of things 

When the going goes full throttle, we often find ourselves coming too close to the tree. Meaning – a loss of perspective because we’re on an illusion-setting and missing out on the bigger picture. Smaller issues could ultimately snowball into bigger problems in our life that could easily be an oversight when living on autopilot. It is therefore important to step back and reflect, get a zoomed out view of your situation and solve matters with a better perspective.

4. Instill greater confidence

One of the greatest benefits of self reflection is the ability to understand our current placement with our aspirations and goals. The self knowledge gained from the practice of self reflection helps us know better about the strengths we possess, the extent of self-work required and therefore empowers us with a greater degree of confidence in our pursuits.

Over time a conscious practice of self reflection will not only help you reason why you’re doing what you’re doing, but also help you meet your true self in the process. It will help you live a fuller life – designed with intention and purpose.