In this episode, we discuss how we need to reflect on our experiences if we truly want to learn from them.
Full Transcript
Hi Everyone, welcome to the You’re Daily Cup of Joe Podcast, with your host Joe Bautista. In this podcast, my goal is to give you quick lessons that you can reflect on in your journal so you can grow yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually and have a better career, better relationships, and better personal finances while you enjoy your morning cup of coffee.
I’m also the author of the book “More You Know, More You Grow: How to Get Better Every Day”. In this book, I wrote down over 30 tips to help you grow in those four cornerstones. I’m also the founder of Grow With Joe, where I combine self-development coaching and financial planning for Latino Professionals.
At the end of today’s podcast episode, I’m going to give you a prompt question to reflect on in your journal. The idea is to take one to five minutes to reflect on today’s lesson and write a minimum of one paragraph on how you can apply the lesson in your life. You can use an actual journal, a word document like on Google Drive, or your note-taking app like Evernote. The idea is that you’re actually thinking about how to process the information to help you improve your life.
In today’s episode, we’re are going to talk about how we do not learn from experiences. We learn from reflecting on experiences. As an introvert, I like to think about things and reflect on what I could have done better. When I go for my walks, I just like to think. Plus when I do these podcast episodes, it gives me valuable reflection time about how I need to design my life. This is why I started adding the journal component to my podcast because I think it is so important. I don’t do the exercises myself because I’m writing and producing this podcast.
When I do a podcast, I look for past experiences or stories that I’ve come across and seen how I can apply those lessons to improve my future or how to make better decisions with my life. Since doing 243 episodes, I feel like I have so much awareness of my life and what I should do. I know the decisions that I need to make and which ones I should avoid. This is what life is about, making good decisions, and avoiding bad decisions. But you can’t do this is you don’t take time to reflect on experiences.
Now, these experiences don’t need to be your own. They can be experienced by other people. Learning from other people’s experiences will save you time and money. This is why I love to read books and listening to podcast episodes. One of my favorite lessons that I learned last year in 2019 was that you need to know the deal before you accept the deal. This was from reading Warren Buffett’s biography. See when Warren Buffett was a kid, he had an uncle that owned a grocery store and needed some help. So Warren and his friend worked all day at his uncle’s store and then at the end of the day, the uncle only gave Warren like a dime for all his hard work. After that moment, Warren said he wouldn’t accept any deal unless he knew the terms of the deal.
Know sometimes you think you know what the deal is but it turns out to be something else but the idea is that you should do your homework before you accept any deal. I wished I would have known this lesson in my early 20s because it would have caused me to make different choices in my life but my life is what is it and all I can do now is make the better choice today and with tomorrow. By reading that book and reflecting on that passage, it just made my life significantly better. There are tons of other lessons that I got from other people to make my life better but the better part came from reflecting.
Do you need to ask yourself questions about what does this mean to you? How can you use this lesson to make your life better? How does this experience apply to my life right now? Some experiences just have no special meaning to them, they are just experiences. If that is the case, then just move on with your life. Other times, the experience just doesn’t apply to your life right now but will in the future. There are so many good podcasts and books out there and there is no way I can consume all the information. I just need to do what I can and then start collecting my own experiences.
I’ve gained so many experiences just by taking action with my life. By running my own business and saying yes to things, it gives me my own things to learn from. And sometimes you just need to go through it yourself before you can really learn from experience. I remember my ex-partner would tell me I need to do something and I wouldn’t do it but then some other experience would happen and cause me to do it. I don’t know why this is the cause but it’s very common among friends and significant others. So sometimes you just need to hit rock bottom before you can truly reflect on your experiences. But if you can avoid this, then this is even better.
That’s it for today’s episode, to summarize it, we do not learn from experiences. We learn from reflecting on experiences. We can’t be passive about our lives. We have to take an active approach to our development as people. So that’s why we need to take some time to reflect on what happened to us. From this reflection, we can learn how to make a better decisions and avoid the decisions that will set us back. If you want a good life, then you need to take the time to reflect. As Les Brown said, if we knew better we would do better. So if you allow experience from your life and from others pass you by with no serious thought, then you’re either going to stay the same or regress as a person. Either way, this is most likely not going to be a good scenario to be in. So to get that good life, start reflecting.
So in your journal, ask yourself, what is one experience that you can reflect on? What went right? What went right? Were there any opportunities that you missed? Were there any threats that you missed? This is a basic SWOT analysis. Doing this can help you reflect on how to improve for today and with your future. And who doesn’t want a better future? I know I do and I know I can achieve it if I reflect on different experiences. You have the power to get a better future, so take control of your life today by taking some time to reflect on that experience in your life.
Thanks for listening today! To get a free copy of my book “More You Know, More You Grow: How to get better every day” just go to my website growwithjoe.me/book and just pay for shipping and handling.
I have a quiz on my website that grades your inner circle, so if you want to find out if your inner circle is an A, B, C, D, or F, you can take that quiz at growwithjoe.me/quiz
I’m also trying to do a feedback Friday episode, so if you have a question that you would like to have my answer on the air, just e-mail me at [email protected]
I’m also on Instagram at Grow With Joe and Facebook just look up Grow With Joe
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Thanks for joining me today and remember if you go with Joe, you can grow with Joe, cause Joe knows Dough.
*Music outro
