Coaching practices for Intention Before Self Review
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Intention Before Self Review, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- Whenever I review my own day I quietly spin everything to make myself look better, and I know it
- I do these honest reviews of my day and then nothing actually changes tomorrow
- Every time I review how I acted today I catch myself building a defense
- I reflect every night and have all these insights about what I’d do differently, but nothing ever actually changes
- When I look back on my day it’s either all the ways I screwed up or a vague "it was fine"
Practices that may help
- Ask for clarity and honest perception
Before reviewing, pause to ask for the capacity to see honestly rather than defensively.
The Ignatian Examen: Five Movements of Daily Review - Close with a forward-looking resolve
Choose one concrete intention to carry into tomorrow before closing the review.
The Ignatian Examen: Five Movements of Daily Review - Seneca’s evening court — judge the day as an honest prosecutor
Review the day as a fair judge would: what was the evidence, what was the verdict, what is the sentence?
The Pythagorean Evening Review - End every review with a single resolved next action
The review is incomplete until you name one specific thing you will do differently tomorrow.
The Pythagorean Evening Review - The three-question evening review
Ask three questions before sleep: What did I do wrong? What did I succeed at? What could I have done better?
The Pythagorean Evening Review - Begin with gratitude
Start the review by recalling specific gifts and good moments of the day.
The Daily Examen: Reviewing the Day - Become aware of God’s presence and give thanks
Open the review by pausing, settling, and naming specific gifts from the day.
The Ignatian Examen: Five Movements of Daily Review - Share the review with someone who will ask honest questions
A review held privately is easier to fudge; one shared with an honest questioner is harder to rationalize.
The Annual Review (Tim Ferriss Method) - Include a trusted other in high-stakes AARs
Self-conducted AARs have blind spots; a peer or coach who was not inside the event sees the causal story differently.
After-Action Review: The US Army’s Tool for Continuous Learning - Look honestly at your responses
Face where you fell short and where you acted well, without spiraling into either.
The Daily Examen: Reviewing the Day
Related concerns
- Affective Self Review
Review the day as a fair judge would: what was the evidence, what was the verdict, what is the sentence?
Seneca’s evening court — judge the day as an honest prosecutor
- Balance Self Review
Before reviewing, pause to ask for the capacity to see honestly rather than defensively.
Ask for clarity and honest perception
- Daily Self Review No Excuses
Audit the day’s actions against your stated intentions — without self-punishment, just honest seeing.
The evening reckoning (examen)
- How To Review Your Own Performance
Review the day as a fair judge would: what was the evidence, what was the verdict, what is the sentence?
- Reviewing Your Actions
Review the day as a fair judge would: what was the evidence, what was the verdict, what is the sentence?
- When The Examen Ignatian Examen Ask For Light
Before reviewing, pause to ask for the capacity to see honestly rather than defensively.
Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.