One of my favorite commercials is the one where the couple has bought a house, and the husband begins to act and sound like his dad. Do you remember when you started to sound like your parents?
Well, I do. I was at home with our oldest child. Our daughter left the front door open. As she walked up the stairs, I shouted, “close the door, were you raised in a barn?”
As the words tumbled out of my mouth, I heard my mother’s voice. Over the course of raising our children, I found myself repeating many of my mother’s favorite expressions.
My mother’s top ten classic expressions are listed below:
- “Money doesn’t grow on trees.”
- “A hard head makes a soft behind.”
- “If so and so jumped off a bridge, would you jump off a bridge?”
- “Stop crying before I give you something to cry about!”
- “If you keep rolling those eyes, they are going to get stuck in the back of your head.”
- “I brought you into this world, and I’ll take you out!”
- “One day, I hope you have a child just like you.”
- “There are starving people in the world who would be happy to have your dinner!”
- “Wipe that smile off your face before I wipe it off of you.”
- “Don’t make me pull this car over!”
Another expression my mother used frequently was “experience is the best teacher.” Although my mother was one of the wisest people I have ever known, she was only partially right about experience. Contrary to what your parents said, experience is not the best teacher!
Yes, our parents were wrong. Now, please don’t go running off to tell your parents they’re wrong. Why is an experience not the best teacher? Because experience alone will not change behavior or lead to learning. If it did, we would never make the same mistake again.
So how can we use experience to grow and learn? Add reflection to the experience. Why is refection a critical component of learning from our experiences?
“Reflection is an important human activity in which people recapture their experience, think about it, mull it over and evaluate it. It is this working with experience that is important in learning.”
Professor David Boud
As you plan for leadership success, include time for reflection.
Are you including reflection in your daily routine?
#YourLeadershipGuide
Kim
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