“Without reflection, we go blindly onour way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful.” — Margaret J. Wheatley
Reflect and review, coupled with the clarity of hindsight ,1 enables us to turn past experiences into valuable lessons for future growth.
It’s not a matter of learning new information but of unlearning 2 old limits/beliefs.
Would the idea of living your current life on repeat be horrifying or affirming?
Friedrich Nietzsche once wrote on a thought experiment he referred to as Eternal Recurrence:
Imagine a universe in which you would live your current life over and over again, in perpetuity. You would live exactly the same way, down to the tiniest detail.
Would this be horrifying or affirming?
The thought experiment is intended to spark reflection and introspection on your current direction, decisions, and actions:
- What changes would you need to make to your life such that the idea of living it over and over again would be exciting?
- Who would you need to become?
- What attitudes or self-limiting beliefs would you need to scrub away?
Introspection is vital for uncovering personal truths, which fosters the need for experimentation and exploration in life. Engaging in diverse experiences allows individuals to encounter serendipity and learn significant lessons. Although truth can be painful and often goes unacknowledged, it continually presents itself as a reflection of reality. People may overlook these truths until they personally experience them. Wisdom cannot simply be transmitted through reading or teachings; it must be discovered individually through lived experience.
Introspection is the one of the best ways to expand our self-awareness—the more time we invest into reflecting on our thoughts and emotions, the more self-awareness we will have.
See also: