The Power of Introspection

This article is about the power of your thoughts.

There is a saying that has been repeated by wise men (and women) throughout history:

You become what you think about.

What we focus on, we notice, look for, and recognize.

When we think about our goals all day, we are more likely to hit them.

But here is a twist…

Another truth we need to be aware of.

You are NOT your thoughts.

Our thoughts bubble up reactively and trigger positive and negative emotions.

We don’t HAVE to listen to them.

But when we do, our lives become a reflection of those thoughts.

OK… so what can we do about this?

How do we acknowledge the natural reactivity of our thoughts and also choose to focus on thoughts that help us.

The answer is introspection.

In this article, I will teach you about introspection and how to leverage it to level up your performance and personal power.

Introspection vs. Mindfulness

Mindfulness is awesome but it is different than introspection.

Mindfulness is paying attention in the moment.

Introspection is the process of examining and reflecting on your own thoughts, feelings, and experiences. It involves looking inward to gain insight into your mental and emotional state.

Mindfulness helps you now.

Introspection helps you better understand yourself.

As you look to level up your performance, introspection will help you identify your why, your triggers, your feelings, reactions, etc.

But introspection is not just one thing… There are a few aspects to leverage.

Aspects of Introspection

Self-Observation:

This is the closest we get to mindfulness.

Introspection involves observing you own mental processes, emotions, and behaviors.

This can include noticing how you feel in certain situations, what thoughts arise, and how you react to various stimuli.

One of the best applications of self-observation is in your emotional reactions.

When you feel heated, reactive, or emotional, you can take a moment to pull your mind out of the situation and observe your reactions like you are watching a movie.

Once you are past your emotional reaction, and in a calm state of mind, you can reflect for a deeper dive into what happened.

Self-Reflection:

This process requires a reflective stance, where you think about your experiences and try to understand them.

Self-reflection often involves asking questions like "Why did I feel that way?" or "What were my motivations for that behavior?"

You can ask other powerful questions like:

“What did I really want?”

“What were my expectation?”

“How did I show up to that situation?”

“What thoughts or assumptions popped into my mind?”

The quality of your reflection is dependent on the quality of questions you ask.

If you want to learn more about yourself… ask better questions.

After asking great questions and simmering on them, you can create insights.

Insight Development:

The goal of introspection is often to gain deeper insight into yourself. This can lead to greater self-awareness, understanding personal patterns, and recognizing areas for growth or change.

If you recognize that you are reactive in certain situations, you can create a plan to make a change.

When it comes to reactivity, there are typically 2 areas I see hit people the hardest:

Expectations - Usually an expectation we had is not met.

Time - we are dropped into a situation without having the time to prepare (and set expectations).

These two topics are worth an article of their own.

Suffice to say that we can use introspection to identify situations where we can apply more mindfulness, or better prepare ourselves for that situation.

When we have these insights, we can then be consciously aware.

Conscious Awareness:

This involves bringing attention to internal experiences rather than external events.

Imagine you bring two minds to any situation.

The first is our unconscious mind. This is our default operating system where we float through the day on autopilot.

The second is our conscious mind where we are able to pause, reflect, and choose our reactions appropriately.

Most of the time, we just operate out of the unconscious.

Conscious awareness helps us lift our mind into a state we can act purposefully and intentionally.

Operating from the conscious is the holy grail of behavior.

So how can we introspect to get ourselves into this state?

How to Introspect

To effectively introspect you MUST make time to write or speak your thoughts.

This is a must.

If you introspect in your mind, you will fall short.

Why? Because when we are in our minds, we are in our feelings.

They are called feelings, not thinkings.

Our emotions are powerful things. They motivate us and move us to action without rational thought.

And this is the problem.

Our feelings live in the unconscious.

The only way to introspect is to bring our experiences into the conscious.

We do that by writing… by speaking!

When we write or speak, we are forced to make logical sense of our feelings.

Have you ever had the experience where you felt strongly about something, but when you vocalize it, you realize how lame you sound? Or how wrong you sound?

Using language forces us to rationalize.

While our emotional brains are powerful, it is out rational brains that set us apart from every other animal on the planet.

Chimps cannot introspect… at least not like we can.

So start here:

Block 15 minutes for introspection.

Think of a situation where you were emotionally riled up.

Allow yourself to feel those feelings. Then start asking questions and writing.

What was the situation?

What happened?

How did you react?

What did you expect?

How did your actions (or reactions) align with who you want to be?

What would you do differently to show up as a better version of yourself?

Let the words flow.

You cannot effectively introspect with internal dialogue.

Have a written or spoken conversation about your reflections.

The Wrap Up

Introspection goes beyond mindfulness in that it helps you better understand yourself.

Observe your emotions with mindfulness.

Reflect on your actions and reactions.

Develop insights.

Strive to live in conscious awareness.

And do all of this by writing or speaking and moving yourself from the unconscious to the conscious.

Do this and watch your performance level up. You will begin to show up as that ideal version of yourself you have been striving toward.

Then get out there and crush it.

Clark