#27 Reflections
This is hump week. The 27th weekend of 52 in 2024 that I’m sitting down to write a personal reflection on a single word in a professional context that might invoke some thoughts, a reaction, inspiration or strong objection.
In December 2023, I committed to posting a reflection hinged around a single word weekly from Weekend 1 2024. I developed the idea sometime a year or two before, and started collecting a word list, which by 2024 had grown to over 60. Armed with enough words with associated reflections to get me through the year, I embarked on this journey, spontaneously choosing a word through the week and creating an article to post each weekend.
Having mentored plenty of industry new entrants and staff over the years, my goal was to create something for younger, less life- and work-experienced audience. But I’ve been delighted to have mentors, mentees, former leaders and colleagues, strangers and friends come with me on this exploration.
What’s in a reflection?
A reflection, in the classic sense, is something you see as an observer not the subject. Mountains and landscapes reflected in water present some of the most incredible scenes of beauty.
Then there’s our own reflection. Mirrors, pools of water and more recently Snapchat and Insta provide plenty of opportunity for us to see ourselves. But like the most famous character who looked into a pool of water and fell in love with himself, reflections where we’re the subject introduce a risk of narcissism.
The reflections that form the basis of my posts, seek to share an intriguing story, a precious book, or provoke some reflections of your own with a single word.
These are reflections that can be ignored or enjoyed. They can be added to, challenged, or enthusiastically rebutted.
These reflections are not off water or mirrors, but off memories, lived experiences, learnings from books, synapses and neural pathways that have formed over time.
Quiet pensive moments, sometimes spread over decades, joining dots, making sense of experiences.
The Value of Reflecting
Thomas Moore's Care of the Soul was recommended to me in 2021. A fascinating book on self-care and the 'soul' that I’d not typically chose to read.
It taught me a lot about myself and the value of reflection, noting “Taking an interest in one’s own soul requires a certain amount of space for reflection and appreciation. Ordinarily we are so identified with the movements of the psyche that we can’t stand back and take a good look at them. A little distance allows us to see the dynamics among the many elements that make up the life of the soul.”
Moore goes on to quote the great psychologist, Carl Jung who in explaining his thoughts on reflection and imagination said “one should be guided by a true not a fantastic imagination”, adding that the imagination is “an authentic accomplishment of thought or reflection that does not spin aimless and groundless fantasies into the blue…rather it tries to grasp the inner facts and portray them in images true to their nature”.
Moore also observes that “the intellect wants a summary meaning – all well and good for the purposeful nature of the mind. But the soul craves depth of reflection, many layers of meaning, nuances without end, references and allusions and prefigurations. All of these enrich the texture of an image or story and please the soul by giving it much food for rumination”.
Now there’s a couple of learned folk sharing some deep reflections on the deep need we have for refection!
Reflections on my Reflections
I’ve felt a certain degree of apprehension as I started my writing. I have no script. I have no training. I simply enjoy writing and tell a story, and hope my readership will be > 0.
I also felt vulnerable to ridicule or (worse) silent judgement. So a pluck of courage and bravery has been required to ‘go to print’ once a week.
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My topics, as you may have noticed, have ranged from strictly professional to quite personal. I’ve got a lot and a wide range to share. And I have tried to provoke and prompt reflections for anyone who may be reading.
I’ve really valued the engagement – some online, some in real life – that my stories have generated. I can tell some have resonated with people while others have irritated people. I’m good with that.
The weaving of stories, seeking meaning, applying my learnings across different contexts – it’s all fuelled my joy of thinking and writing, and I’ve highly valued the thrill of engagement across my diverse and valued network.
Choosing each article's image has also presented some challenges and thrills, and I’m pretty happy with how it has all come together so far.
The commitment of 2-4 hours each weekend writing, and the sometimes dreamy thought process of specific word selection (from my list) that leads up to the weekend has been fun and sometimes challenging to make possible in a busy life.
I have wondered what it’ll be like at article #52. Will I be relieved or feel sadness?
The idiom ‘pause for thought’ is a great reminder of the value of reflection. That phrase is described by Collins Dictionary here: “If something gives you pause for thought, it makes you think carefully about something, especially in a different way than you have thought about it before”.
The article that has caused me the most pause for thought, leading to me thinking about something in a different way than I had before is #25 Stories.
It dawned on me when I was writing it that I had a story in my head that was impinging on my #52professionalreflections and my life experiences!
The story went like this “OK, so I’m writing an article one a week for 52 weeks in 2024, but there’s no way I’m going to once mention the term AI because there’s just so much hype surrounding AI that I just can’t bring myself to add to that hype haystack. And I’m certainly not using it to help me with my #52professionalreflections writing”!
Writing article #25 (Stories) caused me to reflect on my own story. I realised I was limiting myself, both in my writing but also in my professional growth.
So, with the AI world unleashed, a ChatGPT4.o subscription and a copy of Co-intelligence by Ethan Mollick in my hands, I’ve decided to do two things in the second half of 2024:
Your Challenge!
The challenge I place at your feet is to identify the AI-generated article between the next one and the one on New Years Eve 2024! Will you be able to? Let’s see.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my writing so far and that some of my reflections have given you pause for thought. Thanks for joining me in these reflections.