One Game-Changing Practice I Borrowed from Weiqi Players (And Why You Should Try This Too)

In the world of Weiqi (also known as Go), there’s a powerful tradition/practice that players uphold religiously after every game. It’s called 复盘 (fùpán), a form of deep reflection where they replay the entire game move by move to analyse what worked, what didn’t, and what could have been done differently.

It’s not just about reviewing a played game. It’s about the mindset of it. I’ll dive into that in the later part of the article.

When I first came across this idea, I realised just how useful it is for the rest of us, especially those of us navigating business, career transitions, or running our own practice. Whether you’re a financial advisor, a solopreneur, or simply someone working toward financial freedom, this practice could be your biggest accelerator.

What Is 复盘

The word “复盘” literally means “replaying the board.” But in practice, it’s a structured reflection method where:

• You revisit a decision or project step-by-step.
• You ask yourself what the original intention was behind each move.
• You explore what alternatives were available.
• And most importantly, you extract lessons for next time.

It’s a far cry from simply moving on to the next task. 复盘 forces you to pause and think. To improve deliberately, rather than passively “learning through experience.”

How I Apply Structured Reflection in My Own Journey

When you’re on a non-conventional path, whether it’s taking a career break, switching industries, or building something on your own, your biggest competitive advantage is how quickly you learn from experience.

After each key milestone in my life, I now try to pause and ask:

• What did I expect would happen?
• What actually happened?
• What assumptions did I make?
• What will I do differently next time?

For example, during my career break, I learned that being time-rich but cash-poor comes with its own challenges. Only by reflecting on how I spent my time (and where I wasted it) did I truly understand how to be intentional with both time and money. 

It Changes How I Host Events and Moderate Panels

Hosting events and moderating panels is one of the most visible and interesting parts of my work. But it’s also where performance can be easily overlooked once the adrenaline fades.

Now, after each event, I make it a point to do a reflection:

• Did I guide the conversation effectively?
• Were there moments I missed to highlight valuable insights?
• Did the audience engage with the format?
• Was my intro clear and tight, or did I waffle?

This kind of review helps me improve with every session, whether it’s refining my energy on stage, pacing the discussion better, or knowing how to bring the best out of the speakers.

Of course, when I gather feedback from fellow organisers and participants after doing my own reflections, the discussion is more fruitful as I have clarity on what I wanted to find out from those discussions.

Without reflection, it’s easy to chalk things up to “it went fine.” But “fine” doesn’t build mastery.

I Think It Makes Me a Better Financial Advisor

This is where structured reflecting on my work really shines.

Financial advisory work involves hundreds of small decisions, from how I run client meetings, how I present advice, to how I structure my business operations and marketing.

After each client conversation, campaign, or quarterly review, I ask:

• What parts of my process worked smoothly?
• Where did a client hesitate or lose interest?
• Did I frame the value clearly?
• Did I meet them where they were emotionally and financially?

Doing this helps me give better advice that actually lands. After each client meeting, I take a bit of time to think back about the conversation, what clicked, what didn’t, and where things felt a bit off. Over time, you start to notice patterns.

You realise, “Ah, this is the part where people usually get stuck,” or “This is the question that always brings hesitation.” Once you see the patterns, you can respond to them more intentionally instead of winging it every time.

It also pushes me to improve how I explain things. Some concepts like compound returns or retirement drawdown strategies, sound simple in my head, but don’t always come across that way to clients. When that happens, I know it’s not on them. It’s on me. So I look for better ways to explain it next time. Maybe it’s a story. Maybe it’s a visual. Or maybe I just need to slow down and ask a few more questions first.

But the biggest shift is this: it helps me build a practice that doesn’t rely purely on hustle. I’m not just reacting. I’m building a system that can be refined, repeated, and scaled so that the next time someone walks in with the same concerns, I’m already three steps ahead.

Why Structured Reflection Matters, Especially on the Path to Financial Freedom

When you’re working towards financial independence, it’s tempting to just keep going, more effort, more optimisation, more strategies.

But real growth often comes not from doing more, but from reflecting better. It allows you to:

• Learn from mistakes without repeating them.
• Turn experience into insight.
• Build confidence in your decision-making.
• Improve faster than those who never stop to think.

It’s how professional athletes, chess masters, and world-class founders keep getting better. And it’s a habit anyone can adopt.

A Simple Structured Reflection Framework You Can Try

Here’s a lightweight version you can use right after any project, meeting, or milestone:

1. What was the goal? Be specific. What were you trying to achieve?
2. What happened? Capture the facts. What went well? What didn’t?
3. Why did it happen this way? What assumptions or actions influenced the outcome?
4. What will I do differently next time? Write this down. This is your key takeaway.
5. (Optional) Who else can offer perspective? A mentor, peer, or coach can help you see what you missed.

It can be done in 10 minutes, but the compounding impact is massive.

Final Thoughts

Structured reflection is a great way to build a disciplined way of improving ourselves which ultimately leads to personal growth.

If you’re someone working toward early retirement, building your own business, or simply navigating your own path, this habit helps you avoid repeating the same mistakes, and equips you to move forward with greater clarity and confidence.

And as someone who now wears multiple hats as a community builder, public speaker, financial advisor, it’s been one of the most useful tools I’ve picked up.

If it works for Go players facing off in some of the most complex mental battles imaginable… it’ll probably work for us too.