Our ability to analyse and reflect on our own thinking processes, to know what we do and don’t know and where our limitations and biases in thinking are is called metacognition. When you’re at work and you’re doing your job, beneath it are layers of thinking.

Your self esteem, your attitude about your workplace, and even beneath them are layers. Why do you feel the way you do about either? Are you being biased or objective?

The ability to unpick all of this, to question, shape and refine it will help you to develop your metacognition to make better decisions throughout your life. The stronger your metacognition, the more successful you’ll be and the healthier your mind will be.

There’s two primary forms of metacognition: Knowledge and Regulation. Each plays a role in shaping how you think.

Metacognitive Knowledge includes strategies for learning and problem solving, as well as our knowledge of ourselves as a learner. For example, we might know that when we have to make a decision, we benefit from a pro and con list to speed up the process. We also know that we are commonly biased towards the pros! So we always run the list past someone else as well.

Metacognitive Regulation is our ability to set goals, track our understanding and make adjustments. For example, questioning our own thinking and our justifications and reasoning is known as “mental hygiene”. When we decide we don’t want to visit a family member, we might question that and realise we’re feeling guilty because we haven’t seen them in so long!

The connection between metacognition and resilience is powerful. Resilience is about growth, about facing discomfort and challenging ourselves both physically and mentally. In order to do this, we need to change the way we think, which is where metacognition comes in.

As we experience discomfort, we might want to avoid it, lessen it, justify any failure or take other mitigating measures. When we reflect on this and confront it, to double down and work harder to overcome the challenge, we’re not only using metacognition, but building a strategy we can use later.

Just the same, when we succeed and triumph over an obstacle, our thinking and approach is reinforced. We can place those approaches into our metacognitive arsenal of how to solve problems, speeding up our thinking and approaches, able to face more challenges more often.

Improving metacognition isn’t a straightforward activity. For each person it’s going to be different, as all of our thinking is different. However just as much as we’re different, there are also similarities. Reflection is one of the key tools to build metacognitive hygiene. Thinking about how our actions and thoughts have impacted us and our goals.

At Risky Kids Clubs processes for improving metacognition are tied into the program. Coaches are given tools to help young people reflect on their efforts, with specialised training in different forms of feedback to promote this. They’re also guided through reflective and analytic thinking, using “Mindsets” for younger participants and “Perspectives” for older.

These aren’t about telling young people what to think, but giving them powerful, universal strategies around resilience that they can learn to apply to their own lives, which will help them be strong and successful in whatever they choose.