Chapter 5. Reflection. Analysis again
Prologue
It’s not scary to make mistakes, it’s scary not to draw conclusions.
Ekaterina Vilkova
Dear reader, our train has came back in a circle. We are at the very beginning again. This will be the shortest chapter, but on a very valuable topic since the correction of your behavior, the chosen approaches, and the use of knowledge in general depends on it. Why at the beginning and what does reflection have to do with it? Reflection is the ability to pay attention to yourself, the results of your activities and consciously rethink them.
The meaning of the word “reflection” is interpreted differently in various sciences. Let’s leave genesis and spirituality out of the brackets. Let’s agree that by the concept of reflection we mean any reflection of the personality, which is aimed at introspection.
Analysis again
We have already analyzed everything at the beginning of the cycle, and we need to analyze it again. What kind of vicious circle? It’s all about the form of analysis. There are three types of reflection: perspective, situational and retrospective. Perspective reflection is a look into the future. Since a person does not know how to see the future, he can only try to foresee the possible results of actions, evaluate his capabilities and resources under different scenarios.
Without this kind of reflection, it is impossible to plan. In the first two chapters, we did everything to carry out perspective reflection and increase the likelihood of plans being implemented. Situational reflection is an analysis of the situation “right now”. Awareness of the essence of the current situation and its critical assessment. That is, an understanding of what is really happening now. In the first chapters we also used it. Retrospective reflection is an analysis of what has already happened. A look into the past. Assessment of our actions, achievements, failures, analysis of their causes, drawing conclusions and drawing lessons for the future. This type of reflection is an important mental process that a person needs in order to organize their activities. Because by learning from their mistakes, a person avoids many problems.
Thanks to reflection, you can think forward and backward. Just like the alien language from the film “Arrival” by Denis Villeneuve. But I want to pay special attention to retrospective reflection. Even the origin of the term itself tells us that “reflexio” means “turning back”. Such introspection has nothing to do with self-examination or regrets. This is a tool that helps to get a visual picture of your activities from the outside, analyze experience, draw conclusions and adjust your goals and approaches based on them. I often hear from “experts” that there is no need to do extra exercises and complicate everything. Like, I already know what I was doing, and I remember everything.
«Looking at other people’s mistakes — you can do everything differently,
To never commit them.
But, unfortunately, we don’t know how to do that…”
Anacondaz
I used to think so too and didn’t look at my life retrospectively. I usually paid more attention to perspective and situational reflection. When I got an error as a result or did not achieve the goal, I quickly found the culprits, unforeseen circumstances, or explained why the method was not working. There were not even thoughts to analyze the path traveled, systematize the experience gained and make a new iteration.
What is there to analyze? We have to do things. Thanks to our brain. It takes care of us and protects us from stress. It will always find an explanation so as not to admit a mistake, not to start a difficult case, skip a workout or eat a cake late at night. Over time, I noticed that searching for answers from the outside does not work. When I consciously shifted the focus to myself and tried to figure out why I was acting in a certain way, I was able to admit to myself that I was to blame for everything.
I had no problems with sobriety and objectivity of judgments, so it did not turn into self-examination, but it was not very pleasant. Not the most successful reflection, but so my behavior began to change. So, send the “experts” to read Kahneman and don’t repeat their mistakes. Now I remember it after the fact, as a reflection, but the process was not systematic and correct. Everything changed when reflection became a part of life for me. It happened at work thanks to Scrum.
