Harnessing the power of Reflection

In our business, people mistakenly assume they are productive because they are busy; yet, the two are not interchangeable. Merely doing things (“being busy”) will not result in success, whereas doing the right things (“being productive”) will. Most individuals I encounter in our business are highly organized—they keep detailed lists of tasks and things they’d like to improve on.

What if we took this a step further by reflecting on our accomplishments (i.e., reviewing the Standard/Model Day), and listing them out at the end of each day? Some would be surprised how short this list might be—mainly because we are all busy, never set out to fail, and work hard. We each execute our daily action items, but at the end of the day, are they the right actions? Are they productive? The bottom line: do they enable us to move toward our goals? Reflection is a powerful tool; it enables us to see the small adjustments and improvements we can make to ensure we are on the right path of the compound effect. Ultimately, if we do the wrong things, merely doing more of them will not increase the odds of success, but will compound and lead to a quicker failure. Remember, the power of the compound effect is realized by the small choices we make every day. Choosing to achieve more and improve to a higher level through reflection is powerful! When we take the time to reflect on our day, if we realize we didn’t improve or achieve what we set out to do, the next day we will set out with the determination of a heat seeking missile. We won’t be able to help it!

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