Reflections on self

Reflection is often a difficult and unwanted activity for many of us yet it is often expected to be continuous, professional and unbiased as teaching practitioners. I do ask myself the question, is it really possible to achieve this as human beings, who have feelings and firm opinions about everything that happens in our professional and personal lives?

For example, can I reflect and learn from my experiences with other staff members in my assurance quality role, when I may feel conflicted about the policies and processes that we are all meant to adhere to?

Can I really give my all at home to look after my family, keep the house clean and feel safe, warm and fed?

Can I give my students the best quality of education and a positive experience on their teacher training journey?

Reflecting on ones self is more difficult than can initially be imagined and fundamentally requires you to really ask the relevant questions that can enable you to seek out the truthful answers.

Why am I here? Why am I dong this job? Who benefits and how? What have I really learned today? How am I going to use that to effect changes in my behaviour, practice or judgements?

Is this the correct line of work for me? What does my family think? What do my peers think of me? How can I be better at what I do? How can I share my knowledge? Am I good enough?

So many relevant questions, but where do you start and how do you break the analysis of self down so that it is not overwhelming and can make sense? Again, another question.

Is self reflection therefore just a matter of asking lots of questions of yourself or is it, asking the right questions and finding answers and solutions to those?

By asking the right questions you begin to think about how you as a person, both professionally and personally behaves. How you look at the world around you and form opinions. How you respond to situations and solve problems and how you manage the issues in your professional versus personal life.

Responding in the best possible manner, that is subjective and fair is how I strive to behave, but being human dictates that this is flawed, as I will inevitably still make mistakes. This is what I have always been aware of in myself, but I am happy to acknowledge that.

Over time I am no longer worried about making mistakes, as I know I learn from this and I am no longer concerned about being judged when I make mistakes. It makes me part of who I am and how I grow better personally and professionally.