Taking time to step back and reflect is essential for good decision-making. As well as for learning from your work experiences, it’s an approach that supports you to listen deeply to your intuition too.

Several years ago, I was learning on a theoryU programme. There was focus on deep listening, journaling and reflective practice – and creating space, to find out what motivates and inspires you. I recall a whole philosophy about reflection work, the impact on decisions you make and the steps you take. The steps are likely to have a more positive impact, because they come from that deep, inner reflective place.

Our busy culture pushes us to do more, overcommit, mistrust the value of pausing, reflecting. It dismisses the value of quiet and silence.

Through meditating, journaling and healing martial arts like Qi Gong, I’ve learned that space for quiet and for reflective practice is powerful stuff.

Whether I’m reflecting on coaching sessions, or answering journaling questions, or responding to a prompt, it’s always useful. It’s enabled me to improve my coaching practice, develop my writing skills, and discover my inner wisdom. It has given me insights that have kept me on the right career path at work. 

Lots of authors excel in supporting us to learn how to reflect deeply. Some of my favourites are:

Barbara Bassott, Jackee Holder and Julia Cameron, and of course my own book.

I hope you can take some time to discover your own reflective practice this autumn.