By: Angie Falls

Just the other day I came across an article about Winston Churchill. The part that stuck with me;

Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never — in nothing, great or small, large or petty — never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.” —Winston Churchill

The focus was on Winston Churchill being stubborn and determined.

The next passage also very interesting;

“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” — Winston Churchill

In my line of work, I get to meet and work with many people. Whenever I meet new people I always get to learn another mindset or perspective on life. It can be good or bad. Dealing with all these different people demands a lot of energy. In every situation when I feel there is no positive development I use self-reflection. This enables me to handle a negative outcome.

Let’s shed some light on this considering the academic theory.

Human self-reflection is the capacity of humans to exercise introspection and the willingness to learn more about their fundamental nature, purpose, and essence.

Human self-reflection is related to the philosophy of consciousness, the topic of awareness, consciousness in general and the philosophy of mind.

I strongly believe that during our existence the battle of life is the battle within our own minds.

What forms us and how we perceive the world. What has contributed to this view? In the end, all answers to questions we raise come from within ourselves. We should dig deep to come to that conclusion.

A famous quote of Shakespeare’s Hamlet (II, ii, 115-117), expressing the contrast of human physical beauty, intellectual faculty, and ephemeral nature:

What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving, how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?

I remember one of my managers always communicated in every professional event to always self-reflect. He was not interested in the mistakes but in the solutions, that I would come with. This was very motivating. It gave me the space to develop myself by learning from failures and continuously improving through self-reflection.

Especially when I should deal with difficult people I find it a useful process to unravel. It provides meaning to why I experience someone as difficult.

A few questions I ask myself are;

• Am I employing a healthy perspective?
• Am I letting matters that are out of control stress me out?
• Am I achieving the goals that I’ve set for myself?

It helps me to have a better understanding of my emotions. Strength, weaknesses and my driving factors. It enables me to assess myself and my way of working. I can grow and develop myself by looking inward instead of outward. It is highly beneficial for my profession and improvement of my function.

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