Reflect on your challenge
Reflect on your challenge
Looking back on your challenge helps you notice what you’ve learned and what you might do next. But, sometimes, it can be difficult.
Looking at your whole challenge, you might have:
- discovered something about yourself
- built a skill
- gained confidence
- proved you could follow something through
Here are some resources to use when thinking back on your challenge. You don’t have to answer everything, just choose what helps you reflect.
Ways to capture it
You don’t need to write your reflection down – there are many ways to capture it so choose what works best for you:
- Write
- In paragraphs
- Quick notes
- Drawings and sketches
- Models or sculptures
- Video
- Photographs
- Group discussion
Start Simple
If you only do one thing, try answering these questions:
What did I do?
- How does it feel overall?
- Proud?
- Mixed?
- Relieved?
- What am I proud of?
- What did I learn?
- How would you rate your experience from 1-5?
Want to go a bit deeper?
Pick any of these that stand out to you , answer all of them, answer none of them, or fall somewhere in between.
Feel free to get creative in how you answer them (write, type, sketch, create, whatever feels best).
- Did you get where you thought you would?
- What skills did you use?
- What surprised you?
- What felt harder or easier than expected?
- Would you do this again?
- What did you not expect?
- What are you proud of?
- What would you tell someone else starting this?
- What do you wish you knew before starting?
- What would you do differently next time?
Answer each question by selecting a multiple-choice option, then complete the follow-up question that goes with it.
What skills did you use?
- Communication
- Teamwork
- Problem-solving
- Confidence
- Planning
- Creativity
- Resilience
- Leadership
- Curiosity
How do you feel about your challenge overall?
- Proud
- WRITE: What are you most proud of?
- Mixed
- WRITE: What stands out most?
- Relieved
- WRITE: What did sticking with this challenge give you?
What was the toughest point?
- Planning
- WRITE: What was harder than expected?
- Motivation
- WRITE: What kept you going?
- The activity itself
- WRITE: What tested you most?
When things weren’t straightforward… What did you do?
- Adapted the plan
- WRITE: What you changed
- Asked for help
- WRITE: Who helped and how
- Pushed through anyway
- WRITE: What that took from you
Looking at the whole journey now - What did this challenge show you?
- Something I’m good at
- WRITE: A skill or strength
- Something I want to get better at
- WRITE: A skill to work on
- Something I didn’t know about myself
- WRITE: One realisation
Finish this sentence
- After this challenge, I know that I can...
What to focus on
- Supporting honest, personal reflection (not “perfect answers”)
- Helping Explorers recognise learning and growth
- Keeping reflection proportionate
What to avoid
- Requiring answers to every question
- Over-structuring reflection
- Encouraging “what leaders want to hear” responses
How you can support
- Start simple:
- “What are you most proud of?”
- “What did you learn?”
- Use short conversations instead of written tasks where helpful
- Accept different formats (discussion, notes, creative responses)
- Reinforce that mixed or incomplete experiences are valid