Journey to your Best Self

One of the most powerful exercises I’ve ever done to support myself is called Reflected Best Self, inspired by organizational psychologist Adam Grant who mentioned it on a podcast years ago. I discovered it back in 2019 and it definitely helped me navigate the years that would follow, and discover my true strengths and secret sauce.

I love that the exercise is anchored through collecting stories, not asking for qualities or typical review questions. Reflected Best Self truly helps us unlock the magic within us rather than looking to the outside world for validation. There’s a beautiful connective nature to the exercise as well.

It’s why it’s a project I love to integrate into the winter/spring Mapping Your Path as a through line for our other explorations. (Remember, my operating system believes it should be FUN!)

These doodles are my own interpretation of our journey to our best self. (Warning: it may not always match the script society has fed you throughout life.)

Much of life and schooling trains us to live as the “contracted self” or playing small as we’re expected to fit into systems that don’t always benefit us. We learn for the test rather than the sake of learning. We want validation from others before taking action. We try to control everything. We work for the grade or the outcome rather than the joy of the journey. We care a whole lot about what others think about ourselves rather than what makes us happy. We want to know we’re doing it “right.” We need everything to be perfect (and optics are key).

Reflected Best Self helps move us to what I see as the expanded or empowered self. The best part is that everything is already within us, we may just need some reminders. At the core we are all worthy and deserving (regardless of the grade on a test or job title). We can trust our intuition instead of always needing someone else to tell us what to do next (when we do, not everything may make sense to those around us.) We have a sense of deep self belief (I know this is a big one for me as the world keeps changing) to keep going. We care about learning above being right or getting a good grade, there’s no need to prove ourselves. As our best self we can just be. (It turns out you take on a lot less of other people’s baggage too when you live into yourself.)

Curious to learn more? The next 3-mo Mapping Your Path: The Way Forward workshop and community kicks off Feb 6th! Learn more about Mapping Your Path here.