Planning the year
ahead? What do you
see when you look
back?
Dr Nina Burrowes
A new year. A fresh start. A time
to make plans for the year
ahead. An important part of
planning ahead is taking stock
of the year that has passed.
You need to know where
you’ve been in order to plan
your next steps. Reflection is an
important piece of internal
feedback – a way of learning and
growing from my mistakes, noticing and
celebrating my successes, and spotting whether
I’ve wandered off my chosen path.
But reflection is more art than science. When I
look in the mirror I can’t assume that what I see is
an accurate representation of reality. My visual
system is inaccurate and incomplete. My range of
vision is limited to a narrow spectrum of visible
light, my human eyes can only see less than one
percent of the entire electromagnetic spectrum.
And I take the information that is in front of my
eyes and I mould it. I don’t see, I perceive. I make
the information meet my expectations. I