Sunday Reflections

Every Sunday evening I ask myself the following questions:

1. What went well this week?
2. What didn’t go so well this week, and what got in the way?
3. What can I change to make things better next week?
4. What will I focus on next week?

The retrospective questions identify areas I can improve. The latter helps me work with implementing the changes. It is important for me to write it down in a journal, as it gets easier for me to track my progress.

1. What went well this week? I like to start out with the positive things that happened. It makes me very grateful for life. It also ensures that I continue to focus on those things to keep them happening. This made me realize that being surrounded by the right people is key to me. Sure, there were lots of other things that went well, and I do also write my accomplishments and smaller successes in my journal, but in the end of the day, social interactions and people win most of the space.
2. What didn’t go so weel this week, and what got in the way? Here, I find my pain points (and a lot of guilt). Yes, I want to wake up at 6 AM every morning, and no, it did not happen this week. I try to identify the things that were not ideal, and the reason behind. It is not always easy to find the exact reason, but the thought processes help me reflect.
3. What can I change to make things better next week? The list can be long and exhaustive. I am my own worst critic, and the quote “Stilstand er tilbagegang (= Stagnation means decline)” hovers in my room above my desk. I have a growth mindset, and I continuously try to find areas I can improve. The most common word on my list that I want to change is multitasking. (Since when did something I am really good at become a bad thing?) The individual tasks I performed suffered from too much switching. I found out that multitasking made me very inefficient as I changed my focus too often. This is still an area I try to improve every day.
4. What will I focus on next week? Here, I have to find one activity I want to improve. I know that I cannot enforce five new habits in one week, but when I implement one activity at the time, it is much more likely for me to succeed! Last week’s focus was to read one hour a day. 339 pages later, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, was devoured. 

When was the last time you looked into your past to improve your future?