The Reward is in The Review

We spend most of our lives doing.

Deciding. Reacting. Producing. Managing. Fixing. Adjusting. Repeating.

And while all that motion can look like progress on the outside, it doesn’t always feel like progress on the inside. In fact, many people find themselves years into careers, relationships or personal growth journeys feeling strangely disconnected- busy, yet unclear; productive, yet unfulfilled.

The missing piece isn’t effort.
It isn’t motivation.
And it certainly isn’t more information.

It’s reflection.

Reflection is the pause that turns experience into wisdom. It’s how meaning is made, patterns are revealed and growth becomes intentional, instead of accidental.

Without reflection, we simply repeat- often carrying the same habits, reactions and stressors from one season of life into the next.

When you don’t slow down to review how you’re doing and being, it’s easy to drift out of alignment with what actually matters to you. You may still be moving forward, but not necessarily in the direction you intended. That’s when life starts to feel chaotic, exhausting or “off,” even if everything looks fine on paper.

Reflection changes that.

A regular Reflective Practice creates space to step out of autopilot and into awareness about who you're being and how you're showing up. It allows you to examine your choices, your reactions, your energy and your intentions- without judgment- so you can course-correct with clarity instead of self-criticism.

This isn’t about overthinking. It’s about intention, iteration and integration.

It’s about connecting your day-to-day actions with your bigger-picture values, goals and purpose. It’s how you stop spinning your wheels and start moving forward with intention.

If you value meaningful progress, personal responsibility and sustainable growth- both personally and professionally- there is no more powerful habit you can cultivate than implementing a Reflective Practice.

So instead of spending another day, week or year just going through the motions, I want to introduce you to a more empowering way to live your life AND operate your business: a way to regularly assess how you AND your Team are showing up- in real time, based on where you are and where you wanna be.

Follow along, and I’ll walk you through the WHAT, WHEN, HOW, and WHY of creating a Reflective Practice- one that helps you stay aligned, grounded, and intentionally evolving, in both your life and your business.

WHAT:

A Reflective Practice (RP for short b/c I LOVE acronyms) is a way of evaluating your way of being and your way of doing in the world.

Set aside time on a regular basis to review your actions and your re-actions, your choices and behaviors, your goals and desires, your thoughts and beliefs (and whatever else you find valuable to evaluate about yourself).

WHEN:
The short answer- on a regular basis.

The longer answer- any time you experience contrast out in the world, you can find value in exploring your relationship to that contrast and potential lessons to be learned.

Depending on how much time you can/want to invest in a RP (personally and/or professionally), you can reflect yearly, quarterly, monthly or even daily.

Consider what you can commit to doing on a regular basis, because it's the consistent engagement that will yield long-term sustainable change.

If having 1 hour of sacred time every Saturday morning is do-able, great. If you prefer 15 minutes every morning before your household awakes, try it. A weekly 60min. meeting can work wonders for getting your work Team rowing in the same direction.

Personally, I invest 15-45min every morning in my personal RP, about 1-2hrs in a quarterly review and 2-3hrs in a yearly review.

I recommend starting with 10min of reflection every day- and notice how you feel after 1 week. If you're starting to feel your awareness heightening, your perspective broadening and your consciousness awakening- celebrate this and stay committed.

Professionally, when I owned my floral design & event production Company and had a large Team to lead and manage, I invest 120min per week in weekly team meetings, 2hrs per month in a monthly Leadership Team meeting, 3hrs per quarter in a quarterly Leadership Team meeting and 4hrs per year in a yearly Leadership Team meeting- all of which I consider a RP (see below in HOW).

For Teams, I recommend having 1 all-Team meeting per week, at a minimum. Start with 60min and follow the same agenda, every single week. Once you've established some consistency (which also builds trust with your Team), you can add department meetings and 1:1s. 

HOW:
The beauty of creating your own RP to evaluate and assess is...it's YOURS to create.

While the options are unlimited, most find value in expressing gratitude, celebrating wins, reviewing losses, cross-checking goals and clarifying intentions.

Personally, my morning RP involves contemplating:

• thanks & gratitude
• wins from the previous day
• what felt yuck about the previous day
  • + 1 baby step I can take to transform the yuck (I like to say that I turn my shit into fertilizer for my growth)
• what matters most today (both my being and doing)
  • + 1-3 baby steps I can take to move life/business forward in some way

I, personally, use my Monk Manual daily and also have a simple black and white composition notebook for jotting down additional thoughts and ideas.

If those ideas don't appeal to you- try something else. The key is- just get started in a way that feels good and easy, for you.

Over the years, I've used the time to play around with writing poetry, reciting mantras, meditating and even spending 10min writing whatever comes to mind (a concept called Morning Pages, which I learned about in a book called "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron).

If I felt pulled towards doing any of this extra "stuff," I became energized and more connected to myself as a result; which typically led to a greater chance of holding onto that good feeling throughout the day, too

Professionally, our RP was practiced weekly in Team meeting, each with their own agenda.

We start every meeting connecting on a personal level with an update. Much like my personal RP, we:

• review wins/losses from the previous week/month
• we review the upcoming week/month and related red flags
• discuss and solve issues
• end with a clear list of 7 Day Actions everyone is committed to taking

In our longer meetings, we analyze our Scorecard numbers (think KPIs) and spend more time on discussing issues and creating solutions- because business runs smoother with fewer issues.

One last note about HOW to implement a RP: be sure to ASSESS yourself/your Team, not judge. This is a important distinction.

Assessing allows you to step outside yourself as an observer of your own behavior and evaluate your way of being and doing without forming an opinion. When you can see your way of being and doing for what it is, you can remain objective, think clearly and make positive, productive decisions.

Alternatively, judging is grounded in bias and opinion, which results in being subjective, drawn into drama and making decisions based on emotion- which is not productive.

WHY:
We're all busy doing, doing, doing. You may be moving forward but getting nowhere (aka. spinning your wheels).

A Reflective Practice allows you to take time, slow down and assess your way of being in relation to your doing.

When you make time for a RP, you reflect, review and align your thoughts, choices and decisions with your bigger intentions (goals, values, purpose). If you're feeling wonky, in a rut or just downright overwhelmed, you're most likely out of alignment. Reflecting helps you more objectively claim your issues, identify the obstacles, outline a strategy to move forward and re-align with where and WHO you want to be.

Unlike a formal assessment, YOU get to define your own, unique measures for your nature, quality and ability.

In your RP, the results are 100% accurate, created to support you being a better version of you.

However you choose, engaging in a regular Reflective Practice is like nurturing seeds of change rooted in wholeheartedly believing that how YOU SEE YOU and YOU BE YOU is all that matters.

As you grow more and more grounded in WHO you are and WHO you are becoming, you will reap the rewards of a Reflective Practice- positive, long-lasting, sustainable change, which ultimately leads to a more satisfying and fulfilling life.

THIS is why the reward is in the review!