4. Reflective Thinking Clarifies the Big Picture
When you
engage in reflective thinking, you can put ideas and experiences
into a more accurate context. Reflective thinking encourages us to go back and
spend time pondering what we have done and what we have seen.
If a person
who loses his job reflects on what happened, he may see a pattern of events that
led to his dismissal. He will better understand what happened, why it happened,
and what things were his responsibility. If he also looks at the incidents that
occurred afterward, he may realize that in the larger scheme of things, he’s better
off in his new position because it better fits his skills and desires. Without
reflection, it can be very difficult to see that big picture.
5. Reflective Thinking Takes a Good Experience and Makes It a Valuable
Experience
When you were just starting out in your career,
did it seem that few people
were willing to give someone without experience an opportunity? At the same
time, could you see people who had been on their jobs twenty years who yet did
their work poorly? If so, that probably frustrated you.
Playwright William
Shakespeare wrote, “Experience is a jewel, and it had need be so, for it is often
purchased at an infinite rate.” Yet, experience alone does not add value to a life.
It’s not necessarily experience that is valuable; it’s
the insight people gain
because of their experience. Reflective thinking turns experience into insight.
Mark Twain said, “We should be careful to get
out of an experience all the
wisdom that is in it—not like the cat that sits down on a hot stove lid. She will
never sit down on a hot stove lid again—and that is well; but also she will never
sit down on a cold one anymore.”
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An experience becomes valuable when it
informs or equips us to meet new experiences. Reflective
thinking helps to do
that.
