A Self Reflection Exercise

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This week’s post is a little different, in the hope of inspiring your interaction and self reflection.

I’ve come up with fifty simple statements that I invite you to either agree or disagree with.

Why?

Because I think you may find it a very useful tool to promote self reflection, an essential ingredient in the growth and development process – and something we could all benefit from doing more of!

I’ll share more of my thoughts on this after the exercise. For now I invite you to take a separate sheet of paper and write the numbers 1 – 50 down the page. For each of the statements below, simply decide whether you agree or disagree and then write either A (agree) or D (disagree) next to the corresponding number on your sheet.

Don’t dwell on each statement. Read it once, choose your answer immediately as it comes into your head and move on to the next one. This exercise shouldn\’t take you more than a few minutes.

“Self reflection is a humbling process.
It’s essential to find out why you think, say and do certain things … then better yourself.”

– April Maroshick

 

1. You frequently find yourself saying “life is hard”.

2. You are a great believer in celebrating success.

3. You are adept at justifying and assigning blame when things go wrong.

4. You believe that we are all unique and yet all connected.

5. You find the thought of being alone with nature boring.

6. You tend to take a real interest in people you talk to.

7. You spend a lot of time caught up in the past.

8. You don’t easily judge others without making an effort to understand their points of view.

9. You believe that quality of life depends on the ‘luck of the draw’.

10. You regard yourself as a relatively selfless individual.

11. You believe in the saying ‘an eye for an eye’.

12. You are good at asking questions that make others open up to you.

13. The thought of substantial change makes you quite fearful.

14. You are very comfortable with your own company.

15. You tend to judge other people by your own standards.

16. You are a curious and open minded person.

17. You can be very self critical.

18. You are a great believer in the power of the mind.

19. You harbour a number of regrets and/or grudges.

20. You judge people on their actions, not on their words.

21. You believe that, in this world, dishonesty pays.

22. You believe that people create their own realities.

23. You can ‘sum people up’ just minutes after meeting them.

24. You readily enjoy and embrace diversity.

25. You prefer to do most of the talking when in company.

26. You have a fascination with what makes people tick.

27. You love having a stable routine.

28. You derive great joy from seeing other people being inspired.

29. You rarely think about the scale and wondrousness of the universe.

30. You are a good listener.

31. You don’t feel happy unless you are busy.

32. You are really good at honouring commitments to others.

33. You believe life is a game in which you have to try to win more than you lose.

34. The process of change is a subject that really interests you.

35. You are a born sceptic.

36. You are someone who can be relied on to do what they say they will do.

37. Your happiness is dependent on what you own.

38. You are generally very respectful of other people.

39. When you come up against a problem you tend to put off dealing with it.

40. You believe in the saying “If something isn’t growing it is dying”.

41.You judge yourself based on what others say to you and about you.

42. You are deeply concerned about protecting the environment.

43. You lack tolerance for people whose views differ greatly from yours.

44. You have a feeling that there is a great deal more to life than we realise.

45. You worry a great deal about the future.

46. You care a lot about ensuring you communicate clearly and unambiguously.

47. You believe the purpose of life is to feather your own nest.

48. You rarely harbour feelings of jealousy or envy.

49. You set very tough standards for yourself.

50. You really trust your intuition.

Have you finished?

Well done.

Now, consider each of the statements above that carries an even number  (2, 4, 6, etc.) count how many you have agreed with. Give yourself four points for each one.

Now consider each of the statements that carries an odd number (1,3,5, etc.). Count how many you have agreed with and assign four points to each of these.

Next, take the total score for the even numbered agrees and deduct the total score from the odd numbered agrees.

The highest score you could achieve is +100 and the lowest -100.

Is your final score positive or negative? How positive or how negative?

Let me assure you that this is not some form of scientific profiling method and your score on this shouldn’t necessarily be interpreted as either ‘good’ or ‘bad’. It is intended rather for your own self reflection.

These statements are all derived from various aspects of our life coach training programme.

Generally speaking, the higher you score on this the more likely you are to make a wonderful life coach helping people achieve their goals and dreams. Alternatively, the higher you score, the more likely you are to respond well to receiving life coaching.

A low score doesn’t necessarily preclude you from considering life coaching as a career or from being coached effectively but it does mean you can expect to experience a greater degree of adjustment and change through exposure to the training or life coaching.

My hope is that this exercise has left you with some food for thought!

38 thoughts on “A Self Reflection Exercise”

  1. I scored quite a high positive score and I think that if I did this a year ago the result would be a lot different. Makes me realise how far I have come. Thanks Bill

  2. Tanya Robberts

    Very interesting. After reading the answers again. It makes me, pause, think and reflect. Learning (self reflecting ) more about myself, everyday. What a wonderful Journey.

  3. Very intresting. Though I would like to know what is considred a high score? Above 50? And a low score? Another question how negative can you be to get to a – score? Or can you really not agree with any of the questions? This questions let me again think of how different each one of us are created. Sometimes when you are finish with a session you always wonder did I really make a change, maybe some of these questions can lead to an answer. Kalahari thinking…

    1. Hi Philippa,

      As I tried to point out in the post, this has not been scientifically developed. I came up with this myself based on material used in the New Insights programme, so I would ask you not to get too worked up about what the scores mean.

      Essentially, each of the even statements are statements that are more regularly associated with a self aware person with an open mind and a generally positive and self empowering mindset, whereas the odd numbered statements are more likely to be associated with people who are living life less ‘consciously’ or more reactively and who may have more of a disempowering mindset.

      If one agrees with all of the even statements and none of the odd statements then one would get a perfect score … and vice versa. And if one agrees with all of the evens and all of the odds one would score zero.

      I am suggesting that people with a net positive score are likely to be more self aware and more inclined towards living consciously and the more positive the better in that regard

      But I don’t think it is helpful to try and label people according to their scores. The idea is to provoke some self reflection / introspection .. not to try and apply this as a means of profiling.

  4. Truly Brilliant Bill!
    The power of reflection and self-awareness is often underestimated and I invite everyone who reads your post and do the exercise to take it one step further. DO something with this raised self-awareness and discover the amazing things that can happen.
    Thanks Bill, it also inspired me to wanting to devise a similar exercise for my own Coaching clients.

  5. Very worthy of reflection, and acceptance of the truth. What comes to mind for me is: Life’s a game of give and take.

  6. I do not always like the answers i get, but if you cannot be truthful with yourself, who can you be truthful with.

    1. As I mentioned, this is not really intended as a profiling exercise, Jescah. Hopefully it offers some food for thought though!

  7. Mark Brownfield

    A real eye opener. I think I was aware of most of my areas for development, but it was really helpful to reveal them in this exercise and relate them to coaching. Especially how I might judge others and how, deep down, I fear change. Despite this, I was reassured with my overall score.
    ?

  8. Thank you, Bill. There were a few questions that fell in grey areas for me. Which provide some food for thought. Good on!

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