Look back into your future

One of the most important things I believe we can do is reflect. Maybe it’s just how I justify my overthinking problem, but reflection is one of the most motivating and empowering things I do for myself. Reflection to me is understanding who I am, where I came from, and where I want to be. Don’t get me wrong, I can be hard on myself and use a given memory recollection against myself, but I do my best to trust myself that there are brighter days ahead.

Looking back at where I was a year ago today, I almost feel like a different person. Professionally, personally, health-wise, financially, you name it and seemingly it was not working out for me. There’s unemployed, and then there’s severely unemployed, which is what I was. If I got an interview, my personal life was affecting me so much that my professional confidence failed me, starting a downward spiral of all-time low confidence.

Flash forward to today, my goals for myself are vastly different, and they should be. Holding myself to different standards at different phases in my life is the only way I expect to improve the most important product I will ever work on, me. Reflecting on who I was last year, helps me realize that I can become the people I aspire to be a year from today. Obviously, this is easier said than done because you are your own worst critic but on the flip side, you are also your own best motivator. No one knows you like you do so I suppose it’s up to you to decide whether you listen to the critic or the motivator.