"A life unexamined is not worth living."

One of the great drives of improvement and innovation is feedback. In experiments we need to review what happened in order to make progress on our next attempt. In business we need feedback to understand what’s resonating with our clients, employees, and in the market to get a better sense for how to position ourselves.

Unsurprisingly, the same is true in our self-growth. We need to get feedback to help us figure out what’s working and what’s not in pursuit of our goals so that we can make positive adjustments and change course in beneficial ways. Yet, the majority of people in self-improvement don’t have good feedback systems in place. I believe this happens for two reasons: 

The first is that it hurts to look at the areas where we’re falling short. It’s easier to avoid what’s right in front of us. We pretend not to know because it’s more comfortable to act like our shortcomings don't exist than to face up to reality. Many of us have a tendency to be overly self-critical, and this is a defense mechanism against that.

The second is we just don’t know how. In the areas that we are open-minded to looking at, and dedicated to improving, what does getting feedback look like? And how do we take those insights and integrate them into meaningful improvement? We want to be better, more efficient, and more effective… And the process of optimizing our lives is a cycle of receiving feedback and changing approach on repeat. Finding a way to implement that is the challenge.

There’s a Socrates quote that goes “A life unexamined is not worth living.” While that takes an extreme position, the essence of it is that an ultimate purpose in life is continuous improvement. The world is evolving and we must evolve with it. Our seasons of life will change and we need to reimagine who we need to be to maximize ourselves within it.

It’s through a discipline of self-examination that we can better see the relationship between cause and effect, adjust our inputs, and create new outputs. In fact it’s invigorating and life-giving! But many people are missing the very basics of it.

As Tom Bilyeu puts it, you must be willing to stare “nakedly at your inadequacies” if you want to see what it really takes to maximize your potential in the world. In doing so you get the critical feedback you need to advance your life, your mission, and yourself.

If you want to make the most out of life and you’re feeling inspired to not just talk about it, but actually implement it... Click here to see how I do it!