Why is reflection helpful?
So another year has gone by! It’s the perfect time to have a good look at 2023, and make some juicy, exciting and inspirational plans to support your dreams in 2024. Reflection helps you gain deeper insights into your thoughts, emotions, and actions, often creating new self-awareness. Not only will you focus on what is important, you can also make more informed decisions and face up to your challenges more effectively.
So reflection is an amazing thing, however I believe you must combine it with goal setting and visualisation for maximum impact. Just the act of putting this stuff down ‘on paper’ will do something to your unconscious and will start to make changes that work for you. What have you got to lose other than an hour or two? Not a high price to pay for figuring out what it is you want and how you can go about getting it in 2024.
What’s important about goal setting and visualisation?
Several studies and psychological theories suggest a positive correlation between reflective practices, goal-setting, visualisation, and goal achievement. For example. research in sports psychology has shown that mental imagery and visualisation can enhance performance. When individuals engage in imagining themselves achieving their goals, it can create a positive mindset, increase motivation, and improve your actual results. So in plain english, you’re more likely to achieve your goals if you do this work.
A Downloadable Guided Reflection Toolkit for 2024
As a coach with lots of beautiful individual clients and brilliant business clients too, I decided to create something that people could use over the holidays to organise their own thoughts, in their own space and time.
Sharing 2 resources here:
1. A ‘6 Step Reflection Exercise’
This two page document will guide you every step of the way with simple instructions. You will need about an hour to do this part. Depending on how much effort you want to put in, obviously. You can do the whole thing in detail, or you can skip steps, whatever works for you!
2. A One Page Goal Setting Matrix
A piece of paper that you can print out and scribble on to get down everything you need to about the goals that you’ve set. A reminder of what the goal is, why it’s important, how you will achieve it, tackling what might get in the way and listing all the possible actions that you could take.