[Music] what happens to you when you stop when you just stop and be with yourself no checking phones or making a mental to-do list just stopping and looking inward how do you feel where does your mind go and more importantly where could it go if you gave it more time this art of self-reflection might feel unfamiliar this 10 seconds might even be the longest you've spent self reflecting this week or even longer of course with life eternally busy there's not really much time for it is there there's a bigger barrier to self-reflection than just being busy your mind is competing with something else inside of you something hardwired and that is your own distractibility think of it as an inner version of a hungry hyperactive Restless puppy dog a puppy that doesn't like to feel bored or frustrated or uncomfortable a puppy that wants to feel good right now not in 20 minutes not next week right now a puppy completely focused on instant gratification whenever you're presented with an opportunity just sit with yourself to reflect to explore your inner world maybe on the bus maybe on your lunch break maybe after you put the kids to bed that puppy barks I'm bored or I can't deal with this and invariably we feed it we feed it with distractions with screens with games with vices with things that bring us instant relief the problem is we are now living in an unprecedented age where we can feed our inner puppies with pleasure and distraction more than ever before notifications emails and information likes reacts up votes down votes cat pictures games more cat pictures tweets even more cat pictures cat gifs cat videos shopping Netflix junk food the modern world is the equivalent of a giant dog park littered with dog treats and with a thousand people yelling walkies all at the same time and our inner puppies are blissed-out beyond belief it's estimated at around 5 hours of our day it's been hooked up to the gratifying drip of digital media that's almost four months of our waking year consider how you feel about that sure it might often be a welcome escape from the chaos of modern life but also recall that other feeling you're familiar with that strange sense of frustration when you've gotten through yet another week but feel you haven't really done anything all those nights you've you've left into the abyss of YouTube starting at worst American Idol auditions and ending at how to escape from quicksand true story and your brain is buzzing with alertness yet also strangely dissatisfied it feels like something's missing like he could have spent that time somehow better if you don't ever take the time to self-reflect you won't ever know what that better is imagine life is a long hike and each of us has a map that shows us where we want to go our map essentially represents our values what's most important to us it gives us direction how often do you consult your map you almost definitely look at it when you reach a fork in the road or or a dead end when there are those big losses or public decisions or milestone events that force you to self-reflect but apart from those big life events sometimes you just keep walking now add to that picture your instant gratification puppy and now you're off on some random sidetrack because your puppy saw a butterfly and then a bird and then smell the smell and then felt like digging a hole and suddenly you're being controlled by this puppies every whim and you've forgotten that you even have a map at some point you need to ignore that puppy pull your map out take a look at it and discover what direction you really want to go we know the people who live a life aligned with their values and more fulfilled and happy and have better psychological health we also know we need self-reflection to discover those values research is also starting to uncover a wealth of other benefits of purposeful self-reflection and deliberate daydreaming it can improve our emotional awareness spark our creativity improve our problem-solving and strengthen our empathy and compassion ultimately self-reflection when done deliberately and with curiosity and kindness and help us create better selves and better lives and the good news is you don't have to wait for a milestone or a fork in the path to do this imagine what your life might look like so five years from now if you spent even 10 minutes of your day self reflecting instead of self distracting instead of scrolling social media on the commute to work focus inward and be inspired by where your thoughts could take you instead of going straight to the the snacks and the games at the end of your day spend a few moments reflecting on how you feel and how you really want to spend your time consider how grateful your future self would be if those moments were spent connecting with who you really are and what you really want out of life and better yet imagine a world of people more self-aware and more inspired and motivated towards achieve living and living their valued goals imagine the kinds of thoughts and passions and ideas that could come together and gain momentum and create change to make a better world at a time when we so desperately need ideas next time you're in a puppy yelps for a treat stop see it as an opportunity for self-reflection to disengage from the external and focus on your internal world notice how you feel and be curious notice where your thoughts go and be inquisitive where could your mind take you what could you learn about yourself who could you become [Applause] [Music]