How to Turn a Bad Week Around
It was late Sunday morning as my 7-month-old son laughed joyfully as I brought my notebook and sat beside him on his play mat. I had just finished a long meditation and my wife laid down for a nap as I took my shift in the daily duties of parenthood.
“Do you want to analyze my week with me!” I said to him with a smile, he returned my grin 10-fold, excited to be part of the process.
I then proceeded to read and answer the 30-plus questions about all aspects of living such as spiritual development, work, relationships, and an overall balance in life.
“How was my meditation this week? I said aloud in a sing-song voice.
“It was pretty bad” I replied, answering myself, as I looked at my son solemnly.
“My mind was restless, and found it hard to focus.”
Like this, I went on asking the questions aloud, looking at my son’s smiling face, then answering them in tandem.
And after going through the process I had done every week for nearly 10 years,
I realized that, that week, I was off my game.
Old mental ruts had presented themselves, I was impatient in certain relationships and disconnected from my Source in a lot of ways.
“Wow!” I added, completely curious without judgement.
“Your dad’s got some course corrections to make!””
Then, looking at the data from my week’s shortcomings, I analyzed what may have caused my indiscretion, and then devised a plan of improvement that touched upon little habits to implement such as mindset shifts I could adopt, affirmations to practice, and even touched on food choices that might improve my weekly performance.
And at the end of the process, I felt empowered to take on the week ahead, and just as joyful as my son bouncing around beside me.
This is the power of introspection. It empowers us because it gives us a greater perspective often missed as we move through the hustle and bustle of daily life. And in turn, this greater perspective helps us make better decisions, and any course corrections if needed. Moreover, if we are already doing great, it helps us get even better.
Which is why I can’t stress enough the importance of regular reflection, ideally, daily, paired with weekly, quarterly, and annual reviews.
A Practice to Bring Home:
Aristotle said that an unexamined life is not worth living. While those are heavy words, they can inspire us to take up the serious art of looking within.
Because if we don’t practice regular reflection, most likely, we’ll find ourselves lost and off course without even knowing it.
The Weekly Review
Choose a day this week to deep dive into your life, ideally, on a day of rest.
To get started, do some form of mindfulness exercise such as deep breathing or meditation.
This will help you slow down and still the mind, and give you greater access to your intuition.
Then from this calm and still place honestly analyze your life with thoughtful questions such as:
Did I live in accordance with my deepest values this week?
Was I kind in all my interactions? Or did I lose my patience, or get angry and frustrated?
What could I do differently next time?
Did I achieve my top goals? If so, why? If not, why not, and how can I improve next week?
In this process of honest reflection, it’s important that you come with compassion. A coach of mine liked to say we want to shine a flashlight, not hit ourselves with a hammer.
With that in mind, as you analyze yourself, it’s helpful to have the mindset of a scientist who’s curious and excited about the information, because in the end, it’s not personal, it's just data!
Then, with all your data, devise a plan to make your next week even better than the last.
Then start creating more magic in this world that needs it.
This simple process won’t take you much time, 20-30 mins at most. But through your diligent, and consistent effort, you'll see dramatic positive gains in your productivity, relationships, spiritual growth, and overall development.
Because at the end of the day, our lives are built by millions of moments, and our weeks hold a large handful of those. So, let’s do our best to make the most of them.
To you, creating a powerful week, and meaningful life, one week at a time.
P.S.
If you’d like a sample of some reflection questions you could use in your own life, click this below to download a free template you can use in your own life.