Reflection

It seems like every day we stand before the bathroom mirror, inspecting the reflection that stares back at us.  Do this shirt and these pants go together?  Is my hair right?  Do I have anything between my teeth?  Should I see the doctor about that thing on my face?  (No, wait, it's just my nose.)

Yet how rarely do we give the same sort of detailed reflection on some action or event that has come and gone.  With the old year just having ended and the new one just beginning, it's as much a time to look back -- critically -- at what we've done these past twelve months as it is a time to look forward -- with insight from that same reflection -- to what we want to do in the coming twelve.

I already talked briefly about goal-setting in the last regular post (I know, it's out of order -- tough), so if you want to find out my thoughts on it, you can check it out.  Today (yes, after the new year has already started), we'll talk about the importance of reflecting.

It's habit long-ingrained for many of us to look back at what has come before in a cursory way, taking brief mental stock that it actually happened.  For much of our lives, this isn't a bad way to go.  Did I pay the mortgage?  Check.  Pick up Susie from school?  Check.  Feed the cat?  Um ... hmm ....

But we give the same brief attention to other, more important events.  For a creative, these events are the pieces we've created, the stories we've written, the sculptures and paintings we've brought into the world.  They're also the things we've done to bring those creations before others, to let them see the light of day -- the "business" side of being a creative, if you will.

At some point today, stop and pick two or three things you created this past year.  If you are a regular work-a-day creative, you probably have many to choose from; if you're a casual creator, you might have to go searching in the depths of your memory.  Regardless, pick a couple of things, and then ask yourself some questions about them.  Be honest with your responses:

• How do I feel now that I've created _________?  If you create all the time, compare the feelings about a particular project with others you've done.  If you create rarely, ask yourself if the feeling you get when you think about having created it is the sort of feeling you'd like to feel on a more regular basis.
• Did I do my best work?  Note this is not comparing yourself or your work to any other person or work; it's comparing the effort and skill you put in to the work with what you know you're capable of doing.  Perhaps you feel your skill at something isn't where it should be, and you decide (set a goal) of improving that particular skill in the year to come.
• How did creating this allow me to grow as a creative?  We create to create, but we also create to grow and change, to discover.  Ask yourself what you discovered from creating this work.  This is important not just in terms of seeing where you've come from, but also in terms of where you're going -- if you keep learning the same lesson over and over, you're not growing; you're stagnating.  

You can do this sort of reflection at any time throughout the year, but here, just two days into a fresh, shiny, just-unwrapped year, it seems a particularly good time to bid a proper farewell to 2010, and to the creations of its days.

I wish you all the best in your creative life in the days to come, and hope you'll have wonderful stories of brand-new creations to share.  Best of luck to you.