Recipe for Reflection

I was thinking today about what makes for a good day of reflection. At Building Champions, we always encourage people to take a day away, free from distraction, so they can truly focus on vitally important documents like their Life Plan or Business Vision.

So how do you do that?

For me, there are some specific elements that put me in a reflective mindset.....

WEATHER....
If it's cloudy but not raining, cool but not cold, fresh air but no wind, there's something in me that wants to turn introspective. There's a slowness to weather like this. Ordinarily, sunshine and warm days are what I live for - and here in the Northwest they are too few and far between to be taken for granted. On days like that, I feel a sense of excitement and adventure and I just can't sit still! So if I want to focus and reflect, I find beautiful weather much too distracting! But give me the kind of day where you just want to curl up indoors with a good book, and I'm ready to go.

SETTING...
I'm sure I am not alone when I say that a spot near the ocean is one of my favorite places to be. Here in Oregon we are blessed with a picturesque, rocky coastline that has incredible vantage points....and very, very cold water. It's beautiful to look at, but on your average day the water is not all that enticing. If you can find a great viewpoint, whether indoors or outdoors, where you can listen to the repetetive music of the surf, it has a relaxing and inspiring effect that sets the stage perfectly for reflection. But wherever you are, find a special place that speaks to you personally, and make the effort to go there.

COFFEE.....
Everything is better with coffee. It's not just the caffeine, either. The aroma, the feel of the warm cup in your hand, the slow curl of steam escaping from the surface.....the very temperature of the perfect fresh brew forces you to slow down, and heightens your senses. You can't comfortably gulp a hot cup of coffee. When you slow down to enjoy that first sip, you can't help but close your eyes and focus inward.

SUSTENANCE.....
This one is quite simple. If you're hungry or thirsty, you can't concentrate on anything else. When I plan a day of reflection, I usually use it as a great opportunity to treat myself.....I may bring a favorite snack or plan to pause for lunch at a favorite restaurant. Don't underestimate the importance of a good, healthy meal!

MUSIC.....AND SILENCE.....
Music has a powerful effect on my mood, and a well-chosen song can change my entire day. When I set out to reflect, I always create a playlist of the right kind of songs - music that will slow me down and cause me to think about deeper things. I love to close my eyes and really think about the lyrics and what they mean to me. But there comes a time when you have to turn the music OFF. Listening to someone else's song is a great way to orient yourself, but at some point if you don't give yourself the gift of silence, you'll never get down into the depths of your OWN song. It may feel uncomfortable at first, because we are surrounded by so much "noise" most of the time that we don't even remember the sound of our own thoughts anymore! But true reflection can only come when we listen to what is really at the core of our own heart.

TIME....
Weather, you can wait for. Beautiful scenery, you can locate. Coffee, you can buy on any corner. Music, you can download. Time.....now that is tough to come by. The scarcity of time in our society is a big and complex topic, and I won't even try to delve into that in this meager bullet point. What I really want to say is that we can't ever really take time to focus if we try to squeeze that time in between other appointments. Allow yourself much more time than you need. Don't make immediate plans after you're supposedly going to be "done" - you may be running on a great track, but you'll be distracted if you're mentally moving on to the next thing. Pick the day and put it on your calendar. Give yourself the luxury of breathing room, and don't feel guilty if you have to say "no" to other things so you can protect that time.

COMMITMENT....
The real key to a great day of reflection is that you have to decide that it's going to be a powerful day. If you wait too long for all the pieces to fall into place, you may never do it at all. But if you make up your mind that on THIS day, you are going to give yourself full permission to step away from the day-to-day and really reflect, then you will create your own perfect environment.