Take control of your life by adding a little bit of self-reflection to your days.

Remember

Expanded perspective

We have so much to do, but so less time in a day. Even if the days were 25 hours or 50 hours, we still would have had this same feeling. No matter if you manage everything in a calendar or in a todo list, there will always be more to do and more to keep track of.

With so much time already allocated between your work, family and friends it is difficult to take time for yourself. Spending time with yourself and reflecting on your life or yourself is difficult to do unintentionally. Here are a few actions that can help you add self-reflection to your days and take control of things in your life.

Understand the importance

To get unstuck in life and get a sense of control, self-reflection is a must. Self-reflection allows you to assess your situation and makes you more mindful of where you are in life.

1. Self-reflection makes you aware of yourself
   You get to question yourself, you get to observe yourself as another person. You get a lot of insights about yourself and you can take them to improve your way of life.
2. Identify things that are bothering you 
   With self-reflection, you will have a good awareness of the things that are adding stress to your life. Having this awareness is the first step to rectifying those problems and challenges.
3. Identify patterns in your day that are making you feel stuck
   Are you going through the days automatically or are you putting a conscious effort to make the most of every single day? If you find yourself in such patterns where your actions are not testing your potential, it is time to change something.

Slow down

You need to slow down and observe the moment and look back in the near past to assess where things are in life.

Sometimes we are part of an unintentional change and we realize it when it is difficult to get back.

No matter how planned and organized you are, if you are not slowing down time for self-reflection, things will start getting off track.

It is very important to add self-reflection into the habit at least once a month to monitor things and keep a check on yourself. Even if you feel that the year is passing by quickly, you will be mindful of how you are spending your months.

Know what is wrong

You need to know what has been going wrong before making it right. Click To Tweet

Self-reflections helps you find those elements that are not going according to the plan. It can be your yearly goal or your relationship with a friend.
You will be able to identify problems before it is too late to act on them or fix things. Once you have identified you will have time and awareness to make it right or at least act towards keeping it one track.

Document your days

Start keeping track of your days, be it in a calendar or in a journal. You can keep a simple notebook or any other note-taking app to write important things in your day. If you are not sure what to write, just answer this question, “What do I want to remember today for?”. 

You can also add daily gratitude to the mix, just don’t be too generic, like, I am grateful for the air that I breathe, but write about small moments in the day that you are grateful for. Try to write different things every single day, If you are writing the same thing every single day, it is time to change something or you need to be more mindful of your days.

Take a look at the future

To feel inspired and fill your life with purpose, you need a direction to move towards. There is no better direction than the future that you envision for yourself.

Conclusion

It is easy to not feel the sense of control in your days and go through in an autopilot mode of your comfort zone. But making a change and being mindful of your days is not difficult, it is just about noticing those small moments that make you smile and keeping your mind to be in the present moment.