For those of you who saw the 2007 movie August Rush, you learned that life’s lessons (personal and professional) are all around us.

Better than New Years (because we all know what happens to most New Years resolutions), Spring is the season to begin the year anew.  I’ve always found it a wonderful time to take stock of what we’re doing and who we are – both personally and professionally.  Consider how you can either build on your strengths or improve upon a weakness.  Other than getting a tip or two from subject matter specific books, blogs, articles, etc., keep in mind that the lessons are everywhere.

John Dewey once stated, “Perhaps the greatest of all pedagogical fallacies is the notion that a person learns only the particular thing he is studying at the time. Collateral learning in the way of formation of enduring attitudes, of likes and dislikes, may be and is often much more important than the spelling lesson or lesson in geography or history that is learned.”

For me, the most enduring lessons I’ve ever learned in my life were gained in the most unlikely places.  For example, the greatest lesson I ever received about effective communication came from dropping the baton during a relay race in the 9th grade.  (Great communication is the responsibility of the sender not the receiver).  The most effective advice about consulting came from a letter I read in a Humanities class as a sophomore in college about the plight of an African village and the “obvious” solutions devised for the villagers.  (Don’t think you can come in and “fix” a problem for another organization without having a true grasp of the culture).  As August Rush said, “The music is all around us, we just have to pay attention!”

Spring is a great time for a fresh start.  Let the collateral learning begin! If you have life stories that have changed the way you see the world, we’d love to read them!