Meta-cognition, for some, a daunting term, is essentially thinking about thinking, just as meta-learning is thinking about learning.

Journals allow you to step out of your automatic thinking and ask yourself: What went wrong? How could I do better? Monitoring your own performance allows you to see patterns that you simply couldn’t see before.

Metacognition is the process of stepping back from the thoughts and getting enough distance to allow us to see those thoughts for what they really are.