“How noble and good everyone could be if, every evening before falling asleep, they were to recall the events of the whole day and consider exactly what has been good and bad. Then, without realizing it, you try to improve yourself at the start of each new day; of course, you achieve quite a lot in the course of time.”

That was just one of many important passages Anne Frank, a 15-year-old German Jewish girl and victim of the holocaust, penned on the pages of her diary while in hiding for two years with her family until being discovered by Nazi soldiers. Her diary ended abruptly on August 1, 1944. When it was discovered, the pages revealed a depth of insight and wisdom valuable to us today.

Can you imagine…the difference that one practice could make in the leadership growth of an individual?

For example, leaders who know how to run an efficient and effective meeting do that at the end of each meeting. They ask meeting attendees to identify what contributed to make the meeting effective. They then ask what detracted from meeting effectiveness. Armed with that knowledge, they apply the learning to make the next meeting that much more valuable.

This strategy implies going through life awake (not just at the end of a meeting).

What if we applied that practice to our workday?

Recently I finished, Circle of Integrity, a course by John Blumberg based on his book, Return on Integrity (ROI). If ever there was a course to aid in self-awareness at the deepest level, it is Circle of Integrity.

If you’ve ever wondered about the real meaning of “integrity” and the impact your core values have on your level of integrity, I’d highly recommend John’s course.

Each session of John’s program was thought-provoking and insightful. His course concluded with an assignment. He provided us with exercises to begin and end each day – exercises that would bring our core values to mind in such a way that we could move from intellectualizing our values to internalizing them.

Simple Exercises

His simple exercises, practiced daily, allow us to go to a deeper meaning of those things we say we value and how we are or are not putting them into practice at work and in our personal lives. Through daily practice of the exercises, we are developing a deeper understanding of ourselves, who we truly are and who we wish to be. We are discovering how those values are or are not playing out in our lives and the impact it is having us and our organizations. With greater depth of knowledge and understanding, we are equipped to make better choices throughout each day.

What can you do every morning that would help you end your day a little wiser than when you got up that morning?

In doing that, what could you achieve in the course of time if you applied what you learned?

I’d love it if you would write to me with any ideas you have. Or, if you are already doing something like this, please let me know how YOU are using a similar strategy to grow every single day.

© 2021  Mary Jane Mapes  All rights reserved.