“We do not learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on experience” quote attributed to John Dewey (1859-1952), American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer.
Do you reflect on your experiences? The ability to learn from your own experiences and particularly from your own mistakes, is essential for personal development. When I was 12 years-old I became very interested in chess. I started studying and playing competitively. After each tournament game, I would go back and analyse the game move by move. How did I play? What mistakes did I make? Why did I make them? What was I thinking? What could I have done differently? Very often I would do this analysis with a teacher. My level started improving very rapidly and in a few years I was playing at Master level. I have met people that had been playing chess for more than 20 years and were still playing as I used to play at the beginning. Why? They never go back to analyse their games, either because they are not interested or because they don’t want to put in the effort. Whatever the reason, without reflection, they won’t improve. How to reflect?
We will look at that in my next blog post. In the meanwhile, I would encourage you to reflect on the importance of reflection.
Make an impact,
Pablo
Image by Marie Sjödin from Pixabay