Reflect Before You Act

Faris Alami
2 min readSep 19, 2024
Image from Unsplash by Erik Eastman

In my youth, I began to take a moment after everything I said, did, or was a part of — to think about what happened, what I could have been, done, or said differently.

This practice allows me to see things not from the perspective of controlling the situation, but more specifically how I act or react to what is happening or being said or done.

While it is never perfect, after every scenario and conversation I almost always take a few seconds to reflect — whether it is the end of the day or that same moment as we wrap up and move on to the next thing.

This has taught me that I am never going to approach the optimal, or the place where I want to be, but it allows me to continue to improve on my way to where I want to go.

And it allows me to rethink what was said, whether it was what I said, or what someone else said, or what was done by me or someone else — or what I observed.

I consider how I might have been better in the words used, the scenario we were in, the place we were standing, and so on.

One example I utilize is receiving feedback after delivering a program. What I’ve noticed is that when feedback is given, people sometimes engage in an explanation of what or why they did what they did or said.

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Faris Alami

Global Entrepreneurship ecosystem, SME and leadership development in local communities