I have written about the value of taking time to reflect before. In that post I shared my desire to develop a habit of reflecting. I’m back today to revisit the idea by sharing two resources that have helped me cultivate that habit.
A colleague gave me the book Leading Every Day: 124 Actions for Effective Leadership by Joyce Kaser, Susan Mundry, Katherine E. Stiles, and Susan Loucks-Horsley.
This book is structured in a user-friendly way with built-in reflection questions. Each day has a leadership topic, a relevant quote and 2-4 paragraphs about the topic. The authors then provide a list of reflective questions to consider (as well as blank space to actually write in the book if you want!). I carve out time every morning I can to read at least one “day” and record my reflections in my working journal. This practice has helped me build a better habit of reflecting and has exposed me to a wide variety of leadership quotes and resources. I encourage anyone interested to use this book, or something similar, to build a reflection habit.
Another colleague gave me this jar as a gift: Wisdom, Quotes, Inspiration.
Not only do I love the sea theme (I am a Jersey Shore girl by nature!) and the fact that it was a creative, unexpected gift, but it has been a great source of reflection. Each day I take out one quote to read and reflect on, adding to my reflective journal. I have been a collector of quotes for decades, but not knowing what quotes may appear has made me truly stop, read, and think about each and every quote. Not only do I wonder about the meaning of the quote within my life and work, but I wonder about the relevance of the quote in the life of the person who gave me this jar. In my first week I have read quotes that I know and love as well as quotes I had never seen. I encourage you to consider creating this type of gift for someone else, as there is power in the words you find to be meaningful.
- Have you developed a reflection habit?
- What has helped you?
Here are some other bloggers thoughts on reflection:
- The Power of Reflection
- You can close the door sometimes
- Making time for reflection
- Washington Post article on leadership and reflection
- Not to mention all of the blogs with the word reflection in their name (there are too many to list and I enjoy so many of them!)
Reflections on Leadership and Learning 
Excellent post!!! After reading this I feel like a hypocrite, because as a teacher, I constantly stress the importance of self-reflection with students and do activities to help them self-reflect on their work and what they have learned. After reading this post, it is obvious that I need to start doing a better job of self-reflecting in my own life.
I love the idea of the jar with the quotes in it. That is very creative and quite awesome. Starting each day with an inspirational quote sounds great!
Thank you for sharing!!!
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