A significant dimension of my continuing education is reflecting on my conversations and experiences. What did I learn? What principles did I discover, affirm or deepen? What common threads do I see? How does this connect with other situations? What patterns can I discern?

On plane coming back from a week of volunteer work in an impoverished community of Mexico City, I did a stream of consciousness data dump to begin the process of capturing what I’d been learning. Then later I talked it through with a friend to solidify and consolidate my learnings. I’ve found that being intentional about mining my experiences for nuggets of wisdom provides new ideas and new areas for development.