Take advantage of self-correction
By Jean Ricot Dormeus
In his book “7 Strategies for Wealth and Happiness”, motivational author Jim Rohn shared a potent tip for life improvement and self-development. The author advocated learning from others through reading, connection, and observation. However, he pointed to learning from introspection which ensures self-correction. I could see the value of this tip when I was learning to play tennis. I made the same mistakes over and over again, hitting weak shots, until I took time to reflect on how I was using my body and made the requisite adjustments.
Without reflecting on what we did, we end up repeating words and attitudes that produced poor results. By engaging in regular introspection, we go over our experiences and take steps to reinforcing what we did right and changing what caused us to fail. This habit serves as a helm to keep us on track and help us grow wiser.
We often underestimate the value of rapid self-correction before bad habits set in. The US National Institutes of Health published a study comparing “the effects of immediate self-correction, delayed self-correction, and no correction on the acquisition and maintenance of multiplication facts by a fourth-grade student with learning disabilities. Data from daily and maintenance tests indicated that both correct response rate and accuracy were higher when self-correction was immediate rather than delayed or absent.”
Muhammed Ali said, “The man of least capacity is the one who shows himself incapable of self-correction.” Indeed, we develop our capacity by adjusting and correcting regularly. The habit of introspection or reflecting on the occurrences of the day will keep our self-correction mechanism into gear and at the same time keep us humble.
Let’s take advantage of self-correction, as we cherish a vision, want to make a valuable contribution to society, or reach a significant goal. The simple habit of reflecting on important activities of our day will go a long way and take us places.
Jean Ricot Dormeus
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