Looking at the past in good on a personal level, too. "Self-Reflective Awareness (SRA) is a 'meta-cognitive' ability, meaning that it involves thinking about and reflecting on one’s own mental processes," Gregg Henriques, Ph.D., wrote. "Someone with good SRA is able to generate a narrative of self that is complex, clear, and multifaceted and is able to communicate that narrative in a way that allows others a much better understanding of where one is coming from."

There are a number of different facets to SRA, including knowingnow your family story and developmental history, understanding your needs, motivations, and emotions, understanding your defenses and how you handle criticism, understanding your strengths, and weakneses, understanding your beliefs/values and worldview, knowing your pupose in life and how you make meaning, knowing how others see you, knowing the 'cultural bubble' that you live in. Exploring these areas can dramatically increase the results of one's self-reflection.

This may all sound very complex, but, at its simplest, reflection is about careful thought. It gives the brain an opportunity to pause, untangle and sort through observations and experiences, consider multiple possible interpretations, and create meaning. And every little bit counts. Research by Giada Di Stefano, Francesca Gino, Gary Pisano, and Bradley Staats in call centers showed that employees who spent 15 minutes at the end of the day reflecting about what they learned performed 23% better after 10 days than those who didn't.