Episode #99: How to Reflect the Right Way Using Systems Thinking

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In this episode, Drs. Derek and Laura Cabrera of Cornell University unpack what reflection actually is—and why most people misunderstand it. Reflection isn’t a feeling, a yearly ritual, or a vague act of looking back. It’s a structural process rooted in how the mind organizes information.

Using systems thinking and DSRP, they explain why you don’t learn by doing—you learn by reflecting on experience, and only when that reflection is structured. They show how behaviors, emotions, and decisions are signals of deeper mental models, and why changing outcomes requires changing the way information is organized in your mind.

From New Year’s goals and gym habits to parenting, leadership, and personal growth, this episode reveals why waiting until the end of the year to “reflect” robs you of daily feedback—and how small, continuous reflective loops create massive long-term change.

If you want to stop repeating the same patterns and start learning for real, this episode will change how you think about reflection forever.