The Boy At the Monastery 👦🏾

A young boy once lived there in a distant village. His parents didn’t have enough money to raise him. In those days, when parents couldn’t provide for their children, they would give them off to a monastery to be raised by the monks.

The parents gave this boy to the monastery so that he could be taken care of. They also hoped that the monks would teach the boy. The monks provided the boy with food and shelter. They also gave the boy the task of drawing water from the river every day with two buckets.

Now, you may think the story is familiar, but hang on and read further.

The boy carried two buckets of water daily from the river back to the monastery. He did all the chores around the monastery willingly. However, the monks did not educate him like his parents expected.

A year later, the parents returned to the monastery for the boy. Their fortunes had changed, and they wanted to bring back the boy to the village. As they returned to the village, the parents were curious and asked the boy, “What did you learn?”

The boy was embarrassed and didn’t answer them. As he entered his parent’s house, all his relatives gathered around to welcome the boy home. They asked him, “What did you learn? Tell us what you learned. Show us what did you learn?”

The boy grew frustrated and then angry. In anger, he pounded his hands on the massive oak table in the centre of the house. To everyone’s great astonishment, the table cracked into two.

“Ah, you have grown strong. The monks have taught you the secret martial art that makes you so strong.”

The boy was surprised. He didn’t know he was so strong.

We all learn things without even realising that we are learning. So, how does one bring the learning to the forefront?

We do that by the process of reflection. If the boy had been taught the skill of reflection, he would have been able to see what he had learned instead of remaining in the dark about his learning.

Not all learning is about stating clear learning objectives and having a clear training plan and resources.

We do not learn by experience either. We never learn, even if we go through a problem 100 times, unless we pause and reflect.

Standing in front of the mirror reflects your image as you are in that moment. It doesn’t show you the past or the future (unless it is the Mirror of Erised); it shows you the present as it is.

When you reflect, it is about things as they are now.

Traditionally reflection in the workplace is referred to by various terms, post mortem, analysis, learning, etc. etc. Some questions for you to reflect on.

What does your process of reflection look like? What do you focus on during reflection? How does reflection add to your life?

P.S. If you are ready to level up, work with me for 1:1 career coaching. Hit reply, and I’d love to share more.

💌 Siri