Time To Reflect

The other day I was on the phone with a friend of mine who is a college basketball coach. He was telling me about his team’s 7-foot tall center who will be going into his third year at the school.

After two good but not great season, big expectations are in store for this big man in his junior season. Media members are touting him as an All American and a future NBA draft pick. Much of the team’s success seem to fall on his massive shoulders.

My friend tempered the unreal expectations, but said that the center is really starting to turn the corner and become a dominant player.

I asked what has made the difference, thinking it would have something to do with commitment to training or improved conditioning. My friend said the player has always been physically gifted and a hard worker. The difference has nothing to do with his size or strength, rather is it what is in between those massive shoulders.

“He finally has had time to reflect,” said his coach. “For two years he has had coaches and teammates teaching a million different things. He was always listening to the coaching, and working to improve, but until now he has never reflected on that teaching and let it soak in.”

The coach went on to explain that his player has been using this off-season to work on his mentality. He is spending his time away from the court to reflect on what he learned on it.

Not many of us know what it is like to be a 7-foot tall college basketball player, but I bet most of us can relate to what this player was going through. We have people in our ear trying to help us and improve all the little things in our lives.

But how often do we spend time reflecting on what we have been taught?

As his coach points out, reflection is an often overlooked part of the learning process. We spend so much time moving from one instruction to the next that we forget to sit still. We have so many lessons thrown at us, that there is no time left over to have those lessons stick.

I can read all the self help books in the library, but if I don’t take time to reflect on what I’ve read, the pages might as well have been blank.

In an ironic twist, I would encourage all of us to forget learning a new lesson today and just spend time reflecting on what we’ve already learned.

Photo credit: Wikipedia