What will my reflection show?: On Self-Reflection and Goal Achievement

2024 is almost over! It’s that time of the year when we either marvel at how quickly time has gone or lament that the year is not already over. Whichever group you belong to, it can be helpful to reflect on the year that you’ve had. In this post, we try to answer two main questions: why should we reflect on things and how should/do we reflect?

Why should we reflect? 

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Self-reflection is a mental process that encourages us to become introspective and look back on past events, thoughts, motivations, and actions. Self-reflection can help us process our thoughts and emotions and get a better understanding of who we are, what our values are, and why we think, feel, and act the way we do (1,2). In short, self-reflection can help improve our self-awareness. This is particularly useful as learning more about what drives us can help us make more changes to help improve our lives. Higher self-awareness has been linked to better decision-making and increased personal growth and fulfillment.

How can self-reflection help us achieve our goals?

If you set some goals and New Year’s resolutions at the start of 2024, now might be a good time to look back on those goals and assess your progress. How far did you get when it came to achieving the goals you set for yourself? If you ticked off everything on your list, that’s awesome, congratulations! If you didn’t meet all your goals this year, don’t be too hard on yourself. There’s always next year! 

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Whether you belong to the former or the latter group, reflection can be helpful in both instances. If you successfully completed all your goals, you can reflect on what you think contributed to your success. Did you try a new strategy like habit stacking? Do you think the methods you used to achieve your goals this year can be transferred to anything else you might be trying to do in your life? Do you think you could have improved your methods? Was there anything you think you could have done better? Maybe you might have underestimated yourself - could you aim for a more ambitious goal to achieve next time around? Reflecting on yourself in this way can help you push yourself to be even better. 

If you didn’t meet all your goals this year, what do you think you could have done better to meet them? Maybe your goals were a little too broad - would setting more manageable goals using SMART targets have helped? Did you find it hard to keep yourself motivated to achieve your goals? Would sharing your goals and progress with someone who could act as an accountability partner have helped? Maybe breaking up your larger goals into smaller tasks and arranging a small reward for yourself after completing each task could have helped you achieve your larger goals. Reflecting on the things you may have struggled with can help you do it better the next time around.

In summary, self-reflection is an important part of different stages of goal achievement, specifically:

• Clarifying your goals – understanding and being able to clearly outline your goals can help you decide on the best way to achieve them. Working out what you want out of your goals and your values and priorities, can help you set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals

• Identifying your strengths and weaknesses – reflecting on past experiences helps you to recognise your strengths and areas for improvement. This awareness can help you to create strategies for overcoming obstacles

• Enhancing Motivation – regular self-reflection can help keep you passionate and committed to your goals. By revisiting the reasons behind your aspirations, you can stay focused and motivated

• Tracking Progress – self-reflection allows you to evaluate your progress by assessing what has worked and what hasn’t. You can then adjust your strategies accordingly to make sure that you stay on track to achieve your goals

• Building Resilience – reflecting on setbacks and failures can help you build resilience and persevere to achieve your goals

  
  

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How do we reflect?

Self-reflection can look different for everyone who does it and there is no best way to self-reflect. People use a variety of methods such as keeping a written or voice journal, using prompts to ask yourself questions about how you are feeling, and practicing gratitude. There are various reflection toolkits online including this one from the University of Edinburgh which has some prompts and explanations to help you get started on your self-reflection journey. My personal favourite way to reflect is through written and voice journalling. Going back to read or listen to what I wrote or said and seeing just how dramatic I was being about an obstacle I’ve now worked through is a top-tier experience. Would highly recommend!

In conclusion, self-reflection is an invaluable mental process that can help you achieve your goals by helping you process your thoughts and emotions and work out the best way to keep yourself on track. As 2024 comes to an end and we all start preparing to head into the new year, there’s no time like the present to try some self-reflection. Hopefully using the things you learned from your year-end self-reflection; you’ll achieve all the goals you set for yourself in 2025.

Until then, happy holidays and happy new year!

By Esther Ansah, Blog Writer

References

1.    Ardelt M, Grunwald S. The Importance of Self-Reflection and Awareness for Human Development in Hard Times. Res Hum Dev. 2018 Oct 2;15(3–4):187–99.

2.    Dishon N, Oldmeadow JA, Critchley C, Kaufman J. The Effect of Trait Self-Awareness, Self-Reflection, and Perceptions of Choice Meaningfulness on Indicators of Social Identity within a Decision-Making Context. Front Psychol. 2017 Nov 30;8(NOV):2034.