Want to Improve Your Career? It Might Be Time for Some Self-Reflection

"Without proper self-evaluation, failure is inevitable." ~ John Wooden

Often when we think about evaluations and feedback, we are getting them from others.

Bosses, coaches, teachers, interviewers, and more. We get grades, we do performance reviews, we get raises, we get promotions, job offers, etc.

But who knows you better than anyone else in this world?

You!

So it's important to periodically look inside rather than outside for validation, inspiration, and motivation.

Time to do some self evaluation and self-reflection!

Why This is Important

"When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported, the rate of improvement accelerates." ~ Thomas S. Monson

Without taking stock of where you are, where you've come from, and where you are headed, you are like an airplane flying with no particular destination.

Yet so often that is the state of many people that I speak with on a daily basis - just living their lives and letting life happen to them.

You can live differently.

You can increase your personal awareness.

You can set and reach big goals.

You can live in gratitude as you recognize the progress you have already made.

You can intentionally create a life you are excited about!

In order to do this, you need to have periods of self reflection and evaluation to help you make appropriate adjustments and take new action.

Without it, well… you're likely to diminish the opportunities and impact you are capable of.

How to Do a Personal Evaluation

"Authenticity is the daily practice of letting go of who we think we're supposed to be and embracing who we are." ~ Brene Brown

You can do some form of personal evaluation on all sorts of time scales. Daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly, etc.

I might suggest you do them all - but they will look differently.

To start, let me just share some ideas for doing a monthly review. At the end or beginning of each month, you can look back and forward to progress you've made, goals you have, and areas you want to improve on.

Here are some example questions you could use and adapt:

• Where am I right now?
• What wins have I had in the last 30 days?
• What are key wins I want to have in the next 30 days?
• What are my goals for the next 12 months?
• Where do I want to be 3 years from now?

These are the questions I reflect on each month. They are purposefully open ended, which allows me to think wide and big on multiple areas of my life.

I also love that it asks for me to reflect on my current state and recognize the progress I have made. Often we neglect this in our lives, only focusing on where we want to get to. This helps bring a spirit of gratitude into the process.

Try these questions and see what you think - feel free to come up with new ones that you like better!

This is, after all, a personal experience.

Make it Regular

"Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection." ~ Mark Twain

As stated above, I suggest at least getting into a cadence of a monthly review. This period of time allows for multiple weeks to pass by and is enough time to make significant progress towards goals.

It's also enough time for goals to change.

If this is too often, put self evaluations on a quarterly schedule.

If you want to evaluate yourself more often, do something weekly, or create a very quick daily evaluation.

You can do all of these (I do in some form).

For example, daily I track my progress on habits that are important to me (exercise, meditation, family time, sleep, etc.). I do a quick journal reflection on how I did that day towards my goals.

Weekly, I am mostly just planning important goals into my week.

Monthly, I do a reflective evaluation using the questions above.

Quarterly, I spend extra time looking back and recognizing progress I've made over the previous quarter and year to help me experience gratitude and see how far I've come.

Again, these are just ideas, but I'm finding they help keep me focused on goals and allow me to increase my appreciation for life!

What cadence will you use? Just choose and start today!

Take Ambitious Action

Schedule in time this weekend for some self reflection.

Turn off your phone, computer, and other devices.

Get in a quiet place.?

Be with yourself (sometimes this is hard).

Take out a journal or some paper and just write. Goals, dreams, ideas, areas you want to improve, etc.

Establish where you think you are now, and where you want to go.

Then start taking action to move towards your goals!

Accelerate Your Career

If you want some extra tools for self-reflection to help you get career clarity, download my Career Clarity Checklist at https://www.engineeringcareeraccelerator.com/career-clarity .?

You'll get access to curated videos, exercises, and worksheets to help you reflect on what is most important to you and create specific goals in multiple areas of your life!

Check it out today!