Life and Career Reflections – Introduction

You might possibly be wondering why I’ve added this new category about reflecting on life and career to my Blog.

Let me assure you that this isn’t an exercise in navel gazing, fanciful daydreaming or woolgathering!

What I’m attempting to do is to promote to you the value of taking time for self reflection and evaluation about the various aspects of our lives.

And, from time to time I also want to share with you some of the insights I’ve gained through my own personal reflections about life and career.

What I’ve learned from my mentors, and from the various self awareness, and self development books and tapes I’ve subscribed to over the years is this…..

People who take the time to reflect on and evaluate their lives, and think about where they have been, where they are now, how they got there, and where they are going tend to be much happier, and successful.

Now I’m not suggesting that people who do this will have all the answers, and won’t experience their share of challenges, disappointments and heartbreak. Life contains unexpected twists and turns for all of us. But the benefits to people who engage in regular life and career self reflection and evaluation are:

• a much greater understanding of who they are
• a better appreciation of where they belong in the universe and how the various parts of their life fit together
• the ability to determine a direction in life, with a plan for getting there

I a nutshell these people are in control of their life. They know who they are, and what they want to be and take action to make that vision a reality.

More reasons to reflect – the link between our thoughts, feelings and behaviour

Enhanced self awareness is a direct outcome when we take time to reflect and evaluate our lives.

By being more consciously aware of what we are thinking and feeling, and how this affects what we do, means we are in a much stronger position to be in control of our lives.

The question is……how can we make this work for us?

We learn from cognitive behaviour therapists that there is a powerful inter-relationship between our thoughts, feelings, and behaviours.

It works this way: Our thoughts shape our emotions – the way we feel. Our thoughts, and the feelings associated with them, in turn shape our behaviour – what we do.

Now, the relevance of this interesting theory to you and me is this……when we understand the relationship between what we do, feel and think, we have a tool which enables us to make positive changes in our life. By changing our thoughts we can change the way we feel and act.

Note: I am not a trained psychologist.

My reference to cognitive behaviour therapy, or CBT, in this blog is simply this…….

The very same method that counsellors and pyschologists use to help their clients to manage self limiting and self defeating behaviours can be applied by you and me to make positive changes in our own lives.

Watch the video below for a better understanding of how this simple, but effective method can be used in everyday life.

Why is this important?

What we do….. our actions, dictate our life outcomes.

You may have heard the saying “where we are today is the result of yesterday’s decisions and actions.” Yesterday’s actions are today’s results. Today’s actions are tomorrow results.

So, how are today’s feelings and thoughts shaping what you do today?

What sort of tomorrow are creating with your thoughts, feelings and actions.

It is my belief that by making changes to the way we think, and feel and respond to events, situations and challenges in our lives it is in fact possible create the type of tomorrow we would like to have.

Summary

This is the first article in a special category that I’ve created in my blog for posting articles which are related to life and career reflection.

I have come to highly value the insights that my mentors share with me, and the recommendations they make about videos, books and tapes that I can turn to to increase my own self awareness.

Through this blog I’d like to help you, my readers, in a similar way. As always, I welcome feedback, suggestions and comments you may care to provide.

Best wishes

Anthony