Three Reasons Why You Should Have a Daily Self-Reflection Ritual

“Life can only be understood backward, but it must be lived forwards. ”— Soren Kierkegaard.

What Is Self-Reflection?

In a way, self-reflection is the act of studying life — your life, specifically. To practice self-reflection, one meditates on one’s own thoughts, motives, and actions. Reflection means to study one's own thoughts and sense of self.

By practicing a regular self-reflection ritual, we make it easier to live intentionally by identifying the key areas in our life that we wish to improve.

I want to share my top three reasons for incorporating a daily self-reflection ritual into your life.

To Increase Your Sense Of Self-Awareness

Learning to be self-aware means to be consciously aware of your own motives, desires, feelings, and sense of character. The most important thing you could do for yourself is to learn to understand who you are.

“The journey into self-love and self-acceptance must begin with self-examination…until you take the journey of self-reflection, it is almost impossible to grow or learn in life” — Iyanla Vanzant

What are your values, your morals, your ambitions? By incorporating a daily self-reflection ritual into your morning routine, you’ll begin to understand more about yourself, the things that bring you joy in life, your long-term vision, a better sense of control over your emotions, and a deeper understanding of life overall.

To Track Progress & Achievements

Success is all about the small wins, which are easy to forget and even easier to let go by uncelebrated. Try recording your small successes in a journal. For instance, this month, I’m trending to hit over $100 on Medium, which is more than what over 93% of the writers on this platform have made.

It’s a huge achievement personally, but in the long run, looking back, making $100 won’t seem like much, which is why it’s important to write it down in my journal. I won’t just put down my achievements, but how they make me feel, and why it means so much to me. One day, when I’m wealthy beyond my wildest dreams, it’ll be the small successes that I’ll look back on dearly.

“Track your small wins to motivate big accomplishments” — Teresa Amabile

“Acknowledge all of your small victories. They will eventually add up to something great” — Kara Goucher

To Live With Intention

Learning to be intentional in life is one of the most important things you could ever do — but what do I mean by learning to live intentionally? Intentional living means making choices for yourself based on your values and morals versus the opinions of others.

“Intentional living is the art of making our own choices before others’ choices make us.” — Richie Norton

When you write in your journal, write about your goals and ambitions, dreams, and deepest desires. You’d be surprised by the number of people who fail to write down their goals and immediate priorities; in what way can you live with intention if you don’t write down your goals?

By having a daily self-reflection ritual, it’ll become easier to identify certain goals or priorities that may have otherwise never crossed your mind. Also, becoming intentional means shifting your mindset from ‘what can I accomplish?’ to ‘what do I want to accomplish?’

“Intentional living is about living your best story” — John C. Maxwell

How To Establish A Daily Self-Reflection Ritual

Now that I shared my top three reasons, I’d like to share my self-reflection process as a bonus.

I’m a huge advocate for having a morning routine. With my routine, first thing in the morning, I’ll brush my teeth, take my medications, and set the coffee pot before breaking out my journal.

Step One.) Get A Journal

It doesn’t have to be anything fancy. A simple composite notebook or basically anything with lined paper will do the trick.

Step Two.) Set Time Aside Each Morning To Write In Your Journal

If you don’t plan it out, it won’t get done, so set aside time each morning to write in your journal.

Step Three.) Document, Document, Document

Self-reflection is all about documenting your experiences in life. What happened over the last 24 hours? Write down anything important that comes to mind. How did it make you feel?

Besides documenting your experiences, journaling should also be a time to go over your priorities, current goals, and overall progress — hence, learning to live intentionally.

Step Four.) Stick To It

You may not realize the benefits right away, but you’ll slowly start identifying certain values or characteristics that you might have otherwise not noticed. Over time, you’ll learn things about yourself that you wouldn’t have without a regular self-reflection practice.

“Self-reflection entails asking yourself questions about your values, assessing your strengths and failures, thinking about your perceptions and interactions with others, and imagining where you want to take your life in the future” — Robert L. Rosen