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Discussing pathways to gaining wisdom, including life experiences, education, and reflection.
It is one thing to discuss the merits of wisdom but how does a person attain wisdom? Much like the many paths each person walks throughout their life, there is more than one route traveled in pursuit of wisdom; furthermore, wisdom increases with every path you take. Let us consider some of the more common avenues for enrichment. Life Experience Our family, economic status, and even major moments in our lives can all play a part in shaping our understanding and insights. If you have siblings, especially ones close to your age, you likely have a better awareness of the need to care for others; while it is one thing to be taught to care about other people, that lesson has a bit more weight when it is someone as close to a pier as a sibling. Being raised by one parent can also instill an awareness of what it takes to earn a dollar that may elude an only child whose every want was fulfilled without ever asking how. While plenty of news stories arise about parents trying to dictate what their child can or cannot be exposed to in the classroom, schools serve a vital role in instilling… Read more »
If you know someone who has wisdom, it might seem that it’s innate. However, wisdom is an acquired trait. Experience drives most of this, but it helps when you try new things and then reflect on the processes you go through. Analyzing your experiences enables you to test your growing knowledge and grow in your wisdom along the way. Life experiences are one pathway to wisdom that anyone can pursue. The longer you live, the more you understand yourself and the world around you, and you can apply that common sense and the knowledge you accumulate to make rational decisions with sound judgment. Knowledge won’t always bring about wisdom, but moving through a spectrum of life experiences ranging from positive to negative can help you cultivate wisdom. Learning and reflection are two actions that can fuel wisdom development. Nearly everyone faces adversity, but those who process it and find meaning often accrue wisdom from their experiences. Those who take things a step further and use their reflections to catalyze change in themselves and the world around them are perhaps the wisest. While knowledge can lead to wisdom, education can lead to understanding. Education is also a means of developing skills… Read more »
The pathway to gaining wisdom is different for everyone. Wisdom is an essential character trait that you gain through life experience. One of the most effective ways to gain wisdom and be an honorable person who works for the common good is to analyze your reaction to challenging situations and use your knowledge to benefit others. One exciting way to gain wisdom is to immerse yourself in new experiences. It may seem difficult for an introvert, but the newer experiences you have, the more comfortable you’ll be. Take a day trip to a nearby city you haven’t visited. Go to the opening of a museum exhibit or get tickets for a new play. When you’re hesitant to try something new, you’ll get a little stronger each time you just go for it. Every new experience opens you to trying even more new activities. The first step is to leave your comfort zone. One of the keywords for gaining wisdom is diversity. Chatting with people who have another perspective on a topic or come from a different background can open you to new ideas. Sir Francis Bacon said, “Knowledge itself is power.” All our achievements are the result of developing and… Read more »
There are many paths to gaining wisdom, but there must be an underlying desire to grasp it; otherwise, all pursuits will fail. Some say if you seek wisdom, you will find it, but is this always true? Although we understand wisdom is not innate but acquired through experience and gained knowledge, we must also be prepared for its development. Fostering wisdom first requires introspecting, remaining humble, and having a sense of proportion. So where can wisdom be found, and where are the paths to gaining her? We invite you to share the paths you have taken to gain wisdom and where your journey ultimately brought you. Life experience, more than anything else, leads us down the path to wisdom. Wisdom begins with learning from one’s mistakes and those of others, adapting to life’s challenges, and building resilience. The school of hard knocks can offer wisdom if you are ready to learn. Education cannot be ruled out in helping you gain wisdom. An uneducated person can certainly be wise, but deep knowledge is the fertilizer for growing wisdom. You do not have to seek a formal education to gain wisdom. Spend every day seeking learning opportunities in the world around you… Read more »
Spiritualism takes many forms. One of the key tenets of our very society is the freedom to choose one’s religious beliefs and/or spiritualism, or lack thereof, without interference from the government. Buddhists are free to wait for enlightenment. Christian believers are allowed to gather to worship the risen Lord. Muslims are allowed to pray to Allah five times a day while facing Mecca, and atheists aren’t jailed, tortured, hanged, or burned at the stake. It’s not 1400 anymore. There are, however, thorny ethical questions when religion becomes weaponized for various hate-based beliefs. For example, when religious leaders preach “death to gays,” or “death to Jews,” or other such hateful rhetoric, wrapping it up as a tenet of their beliefs, is that then truly an allowable religion? Is an organization that’s set up largely to bilk people out of large amounts of money truly an allowable religion too? In Germany, for example, Scientology is disallowed as a religion because the German government considers it a con game. As we progress through life while gaining wisdom, one of the kernels that we learn is to be able to differentiate “the real deal” from “snake oil.” Many religions warn us against greed. Taking… Read more »
Education and life experience, along with taking time to reflect on past experiences, all help you gain knowledge, but you must pay attention if you want to turn that knowledge into wisdom. If you get some education and then forget it, it does you no good. If you have an experience and never think about it again and don’t take anything away from it, it does you no good in terms of gaining wisdom. You need to pay attention and spot the lessons, for lack of a better word, to build up that store of knowledge that informs your ability to act wisely. You can take a pre-medical course that teaches you how to spot signs of a health problem and how that health problem should be treated. But if you forget most of the information because you weren’t really paying attention, you’re not going to be any wiser regarding using that knowledge to better your life or someone else’s life. And if you retain some of the information but don’t pay attention to how urgent some of it might be, you end up with the same result. But if you retain the information (whether or not you’re going further… Read more »
Wisdom, or equivalently using one’s experiences and knowledge to make sound decisions, can be obtained through simply doing. The more experiences you amass, the larger the sample of cause-and-effect scenarios you can pull from, and the larger your understanding of outside influences that you have no control over, such as people.
But, as I’ve come to believe, not all experiences equally contribute to the gaining of wisdom. Experiences that are uncomfortable and painful teach us the most about the world, about people, and about ourselves. Physical and mental discomfort is the most efficient pathway to gain wisdom, in my opinion. It is often through such experiences that we push the boundaries of our familiarity and expand our understanding of the world, which is really essential to expanding one’s wisdom base.
However, pain and suffering may do little for you, if you don’t also have introspection, or the ability to examine your own behavior and emotional responses. So, I would also say that introspection is an important facilitator for gaining wisdom through whatever pathway one chooses.
Sometimes the knowledge you learn to utilize is knowing that you know nothing. My time in martial arts showed me, the moment you think you know everything is the moment someone shows you; you know nothing. Sometimes knowing you know nothing can be wise. Always being a student is a pathway to knowledge, giving you an opportunity to turn it into wisdom. You can be a magnet to danger if you walk with ignorance. If you are at least aware that you don’t know something you can be alerted to learning and practice how to use your brain.
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It is one thing to discuss the merits of wisdom but how does a person attain wisdom? Much like the many paths each person walks throughout their life, there is more than one route traveled in pursuit of wisdom; furthermore, wisdom increases with every path you take. Let us consider some of the more common avenues for enrichment. Life Experience Our family, economic status, and even major moments in our lives can all play a part in shaping our understanding and insights. If you have siblings, especially ones close to your age, you likely have a better awareness of the need to care for others; while it is one thing to be taught to care about other people, that lesson has a bit more weight when it is someone as close to a pier as a sibling. Being raised by one parent can also instill an awareness of what it takes to earn a dollar that may elude an only child whose every want was fulfilled without ever asking how. While plenty of news stories arise about parents trying to dictate what their child can or cannot be exposed to in the classroom, schools serve a vital role in instilling… Read more »
If you know someone who has wisdom, it might seem that it’s innate. However, wisdom is an acquired trait. Experience drives most of this, but it helps when you try new things and then reflect on the processes you go through. Analyzing your experiences enables you to test your growing knowledge and grow in your wisdom along the way. Life experiences are one pathway to wisdom that anyone can pursue. The longer you live, the more you understand yourself and the world around you, and you can apply that common sense and the knowledge you accumulate to make rational decisions with sound judgment. Knowledge won’t always bring about wisdom, but moving through a spectrum of life experiences ranging from positive to negative can help you cultivate wisdom. Learning and reflection are two actions that can fuel wisdom development. Nearly everyone faces adversity, but those who process it and find meaning often accrue wisdom from their experiences. Those who take things a step further and use their reflections to catalyze change in themselves and the world around them are perhaps the wisest. While knowledge can lead to wisdom, education can lead to understanding. Education is also a means of developing skills… Read more »
The pathway to gaining wisdom is different for everyone. Wisdom is an essential character trait that you gain through life experience. One of the most effective ways to gain wisdom and be an honorable person who works for the common good is to analyze your reaction to challenging situations and use your knowledge to benefit others. One exciting way to gain wisdom is to immerse yourself in new experiences. It may seem difficult for an introvert, but the newer experiences you have, the more comfortable you’ll be. Take a day trip to a nearby city you haven’t visited. Go to the opening of a museum exhibit or get tickets for a new play. When you’re hesitant to try something new, you’ll get a little stronger each time you just go for it. Every new experience opens you to trying even more new activities. The first step is to leave your comfort zone. One of the keywords for gaining wisdom is diversity. Chatting with people who have another perspective on a topic or come from a different background can open you to new ideas. Sir Francis Bacon said, “Knowledge itself is power.” All our achievements are the result of developing and… Read more »
There are many paths to gaining wisdom, but there must be an underlying desire to grasp it; otherwise, all pursuits will fail. Some say if you seek wisdom, you will find it, but is this always true? Although we understand wisdom is not innate but acquired through experience and gained knowledge, we must also be prepared for its development. Fostering wisdom first requires introspecting, remaining humble, and having a sense of proportion. So where can wisdom be found, and where are the paths to gaining her? We invite you to share the paths you have taken to gain wisdom and where your journey ultimately brought you. Life experience, more than anything else, leads us down the path to wisdom. Wisdom begins with learning from one’s mistakes and those of others, adapting to life’s challenges, and building resilience. The school of hard knocks can offer wisdom if you are ready to learn. Education cannot be ruled out in helping you gain wisdom. An uneducated person can certainly be wise, but deep knowledge is the fertilizer for growing wisdom. You do not have to seek a formal education to gain wisdom. Spend every day seeking learning opportunities in the world around you… Read more »
Spiritualism takes many forms. One of the key tenets of our very society is the freedom to choose one’s religious beliefs and/or spiritualism, or lack thereof, without interference from the government. Buddhists are free to wait for enlightenment. Christian believers are allowed to gather to worship the risen Lord. Muslims are allowed to pray to Allah five times a day while facing Mecca, and atheists aren’t jailed, tortured, hanged, or burned at the stake. It’s not 1400 anymore. There are, however, thorny ethical questions when religion becomes weaponized for various hate-based beliefs. For example, when religious leaders preach “death to gays,” or “death to Jews,” or other such hateful rhetoric, wrapping it up as a tenet of their beliefs, is that then truly an allowable religion? Is an organization that’s set up largely to bilk people out of large amounts of money truly an allowable religion too? In Germany, for example, Scientology is disallowed as a religion because the German government considers it a con game. As we progress through life while gaining wisdom, one of the kernels that we learn is to be able to differentiate “the real deal” from “snake oil.” Many religions warn us against greed. Taking… Read more »
Education and life experience, along with taking time to reflect on past experiences, all help you gain knowledge, but you must pay attention if you want to turn that knowledge into wisdom. If you get some education and then forget it, it does you no good. If you have an experience and never think about it again and don’t take anything away from it, it does you no good in terms of gaining wisdom. You need to pay attention and spot the lessons, for lack of a better word, to build up that store of knowledge that informs your ability to act wisely. You can take a pre-medical course that teaches you how to spot signs of a health problem and how that health problem should be treated. But if you forget most of the information because you weren’t really paying attention, you’re not going to be any wiser regarding using that knowledge to better your life or someone else’s life. And if you retain some of the information but don’t pay attention to how urgent some of it might be, you end up with the same result. But if you retain the information (whether or not you’re going further… Read more »
Wisdom, or equivalently using one’s experiences and knowledge to make sound decisions, can be obtained through simply doing. The more experiences you amass, the larger the sample of cause-and-effect scenarios you can pull from, and the larger your understanding of outside influences that you have no control over, such as people.
But, as I’ve come to believe, not all experiences equally contribute to the gaining of wisdom. Experiences that are uncomfortable and painful teach us the most about the world, about people, and about ourselves. Physical and mental discomfort is the most efficient pathway to gain wisdom, in my opinion. It is often through such experiences that we push the boundaries of our familiarity and expand our understanding of the world, which is really essential to expanding one’s wisdom base.
However, pain and suffering may do little for you, if you don’t also have introspection, or the ability to examine your own behavior and emotional responses. So, I would also say that introspection is an important facilitator for gaining wisdom through whatever pathway one chooses.
Sometimes the knowledge you learn to utilize is knowing that you know nothing. My time in martial arts showed me, the moment you think you know everything is the moment someone shows you; you know nothing. Sometimes knowing you know nothing can be wise. Always being a student is a pathway to knowledge, giving you an opportunity to turn it into wisdom. You can be a magnet to danger if you walk with ignorance. If you are at least aware that you don’t know something you can be alerted to learning and practice how to use your brain.