All I want for Christmas is more potential

I am one of those people who is difficult to shop for. Modern Christmas, you know, the capitalist part of the holiday, is something that died in me after my children aged out of the Santa Claus years. Don't get me wrong, those were good times. And those boys got some really cool things that I often enjoyed as much or more than they did.

They weren't the only ones who aged out though. I'm old enough to have acquired all of the things that I really want, or accepted that possessing some aspirational memento was just not meant to be. So, now a great gift for me might be the offer to take things away. The crap in my garage, for example, take it all!

However, aside from a liberating cleanse of a lifetime's worth of accumulated junk, there are some invaluable things I want for all of us. I think they'll help make us better.

I finished Adam Grant's new book, "Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things," last week. Dr. Grant is an organizational psychologist, and a tenured professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is that rare someone I discovered on Twitter who makes me think, and more importantly, helps me learn.

This Christmas, I want more of that. Learning, not X.

Take it easy out there. Yes, I am aware that I am already a teacher myself. Also yes, I have learned more since becoming a teacher than I have in any other stretch in my life. Dr. Grant writes about this: that teaching, coaching and mentoring others is often the best way to learn more, or to learn more deeply, or to just learn better.

So, my next Christmas wish: more teaching. I can't wait to get back to teaching in a couple of weeks. What might I learn?

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