A self-reflection exercise on individual identity

A Reflection Exercise For You

Here’s a cool exercise for you, in the theme of New Year’s Resolutions and self-awareness. I'm borrowing this from our 'Working With Humans' Course, because it's too good not to share!

It’s an exercise that helps you explore the various ‘hats’ you’re currently wearing in your life. And by hats, I mean identities and roles! Some of these hats brings stress and guilt with them, and some of them you might be clinging onto, despite not offering you the value you expect from them in your ‘today’.

Don’t want to give away too much, so just watch the video and come back for some final notes. But try and do what the video asks of you. Give it a shot.

And, by the way, this is our first time trying this kind of exercise in this format, so please do let us know how you found the experience.

Some Reflection Questions

Now that you’ve had a chance to reflect, it’s time to put pen to paper and make some notes for yourself. Insights, thoughts, connections, conclusions, decisions…

Write it all down. We would even challenge you to take a blank A4 paper and try to fill it up with all the types of hats you currently wear. It’s always more interesting to see things visually.

If you’re lost for words, then find some inspiration by trying to answer the questions below. You can even play the reflection video again, while you make notes.

• What are the many hats I wear in my life?

• Why is each of these hats important to me?

• Can I prioritize these hats based on the amount of time they take up in my life?

• Can I prioritize these hats based on the value they give me?

• Is there a hat that’s not valuable to me any more? A hat I’d be comfortable discarding? A hat I’ve been carrying with me for many years, but has lost its ability to give me value?

• Can I empty my wardrobe of the hats that don’t fit any more or are no longer needed? Can I cleanse my identity of some hats? To bring about more focus. More quality time spent on the hats that matter.

• Can I take action on something right now? is there something I can schedule, someone I can call, something to set out and go for?