Look back & look forward: developing a professional reflection practice

​The new year is often a time that nonprofit professionals step back and think about where they are in life.  This is a good time to look back and think about what the year has brought you, what you have learned, what you have achieved. And what your hopes, dreams and intentions are for the coming year. 

​Developing a Practice

​I have a weekly reflection practice that I developed and have practiced over the past five years. It gives me rich material to review at the beginning of the year to answer those questions. This practice came out of my experience at graduate school. I consider myself a life long learner. Yet the reflection we had to write after writing every paper was the bane of my existence. Too often I wrote it in the last 20 minutes before the submission midnight deadline. Deep reflections they were not. 

Reflection mandala

​My graduate cohort was prepping to go on our international residency to South Africa. We were discussing what would support us as we worked with our clients. Through a variety of visioning exercises, we culled our conversation into a few key concepts:

• Vision
• Choosing how to use yourself
• Awareness
• Action & Results
• Core Skills
• Feedback

 
I saw these as all interrelated and remembered David Sibbet’s work on visual meetings and how mandalas demonstrate unity and holistic thinking. I then built on a set of daily reflection questions I had come across, adapting it and using these major topics as a framework. Download the tool for your own use.

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Adding a layer

I began using it regularly through my work to set intentions as well as observe what I was learning as I went along. Because it is structured and now a regular practice, it makes reflection do-able for this reluctant reflector.
 
With this habit established, I then added another layer. At the six-month and year-end mark, I review my weekly reflections and look for insights and themes.  I use different categories on large 11” x 17” paper to capture what strikes me as I review what I have written.  These are:

• Highlights
• Observations
• Learnings
• Questions
• Needs
• To Dos
• Results

Seeing the patterns

​Even though I am no artist, I have also sketched the journey of the year. What were the twists and turns? Ups and downs? Significant events and memories? How did the year feel?
 
What have I learned? And what will I do as a result of that learning? With that in mind, what is my vision for the week ahead, months ahead, year ahead. 

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What is yours? Need help getting started? Get in touch with me for a complementary coaching session that can help you reflect on where you are and what your intentions are for the year.