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The Benefits of Being Always Watchful

January 17th, 2014

During the festive break, I returned to the town of my birth, Dumfries in Scotland.

While waiting for a bus, I got talking to a local man outside a local school. After a police car had whizzed past with sirens blaring, he informed me that the Scottish Police Crest (pictured above) had been designed by one of the Art teachers at the school behind us. Curiosity peaked, I ‘googled’ the crest when I got home. The Latin phrase on the crest, Semper Vigilo, means Always Watchful.

Later the same day, I was asked by a relative about my work and the conversation got on to how I keep my training ‘fresh’.

‘How do you go about updating and developing your existing training courses?’

While answering I was reminded of the phrase ‘Semper Vigilo’ as it articulates how much of mch’s training develops. Essentially, keeping training fresh requires mch to be ever watchful for new ideas. On reflecting further I saw how several recent iterations to training materials had initially come from very varied (and non-traditional) sources. These included:

• Taking a quick glance at the host’s book shelf during a dinner party
• Reading a magazine I never normally read while waiting for a haircut. -Listening to a radio programme during a long car journey

Through discussions with others, the act of being ‘semper vigilo’, always watchful, appears to be a very effective way to approach learning and development in general. Consequently, I hope you adopt the semper vigilo approach to your own learning in 2014.