Self-reflection and analyzing in a professional and social life

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In Dale Carnegie’s book “How to win friends”*, there was a part in which he talked about a person, who had this particular time in the week, where he would practice self-reflection. Every Saturday evening, he would sit down on his own and begin reflecting on his week, on what he’s done in his job and how he interacted with people.

Last week, when my mother and I talked about achieving goals and trying to understand your own passion and the discipline to work towards them, she said something, which stuck in my mind ever since: “I’m always reflecting and analyzing myself. I mentally follow my every move, every word I say and everything I do.” And because I already listened to the part in the book where he talks about self-reflection, I began smiling. I responded to my mother the exact same thing I said above, and she was so surprised. Not because she thought that nobody else would do so, but rather because she never thought that this would be mentioned in a self-development book, as popular as Dale Carnegie’s.

That’s when I’ve noticed something: Every person strives to be their better selves, but only a few achieve it. And this is the reason why. While everyone tries to achieve their goals by going the exact same path as always, although they never achieved anything from this path, others try to change. They try to evaluate the situation, analyze their movements, thoughts and decisions. The participate in self-reflection, so they can improve.

I am not a highly successful person, even though I consider my goals as being in process of achieving. But you know, I always wondered why I never got to the point, I wanted to be. And with this book, I was able to see my struggles, my mistakes made throughout the way. And, as I said, even though I am not a highly successful person, I still think that this is the way to be successful. That this is the path you should follow in order to be a better person in general.

Self-reflection in a social life

Being able to analyze, how you spoke to people, how you interacted with them, and how your attitude was towards them, is not only important in a professional life, but rather everywhere. Since human beings are social beings, we all have to be able to improve ourselves and the relations to other people. Stagnation is not a way to go, there’s always room for improvement. And especially when it comes to social skills.

* This is my own opinion on the book. / This is no paid product placement.