TPAR - Think, Plan, Act, Retrospect

After giving a speech, what comes to your mind? Do you feel that you gave a wonderful speech? Or, it could have been little better?

Right after a first date or the exam or a speech or a meeting with your client, you would probably think the same...uhmmm, I could have done little better. Many a times, you may spend quite amount of time simply thinking about it.

Approximately few months back, after the Humorous Speech and Evaluation Contests, I felt something similar. AS a contest chair of the event, I felt that I could have done better. Right then, I felt, am I going to dwell on it? Yes, I try to be conscious about my thoughts. And So, I thought of what went well and what could have been better and told myself to move on.

In our life, we cycle through TPAR for every task that we do - Think, Plan, Act, Retrospect, unless you are a thinker (In which case, you just think!). Whether it is about going on a date, taking Exams, working on project or giving a speech, we follow TPAR. We first think. We think of whether I should give a speech this week or next week, whether I should give an informative speech or a humorous speech and so on. Once we have thought about it and made a decision, we plan for it - plan for the content, resources, time etc. And then, we act on it by preparing for it, practicing it and ultimately giving a speech. Then comes the retrospection, wherein we look back to see how we did. Retrospection is very important as it helps you get better at what you do in future. Unfortunately, when we look back, we mostly see and think about the things that went wrong. Often a times, we dwell on it and we are so caught up in it that we don’t start the next cycle of TPAR. Spending time, more than what’s needed for retrospection, doesn’t yield any value. It sometimes harms us, instead.

What did I do, when I told myself to move on - I signed myself up for different roles for the next two weeks.

So, Retrospection is important but we shouldn’t spend much of a time in retrospection and The retrospection should include both what went well (give yourself a pat on the back) and what could be improved. After which, move on with the next cycle of TPAR - Think, plan, act & retrospect.

Thank You!