Be Wise

36 - Wisdom

Make a practical application of everything vital that you learn. Where there are gaps in understanding, seek out more knowledge and resources. Learn from each experience you encounter. Observe, grow, and adjust from failure or corrections along the way. Sometimes they provide the most beneficial and supportive information. Make certain you choose a supportive staff and surround yourself with carefully selected supportive friends. Consider the consequences of each action that you take and make, consistently asking yourself if it is the right thing to do. Use discretion in decision-making professionally, personally as well as spiritually. Wisdom is applying your observed knowledge and experience to make good decisions.

Characteristics and Benefits of Wisdom:

Use of Discretion. Discretion must be used when making business, family, or community decisions. The discretion must be based upon your value system, derived from the wisdom you have gained from many sources of observation through your history and, hopefully, daily. Continually absorb information like a sponge, and let your mind expand and soak up valued and valuable insights, data, and feedback. Be discerning regarding the content and the sources the information was derived from. Use prudence, attentively to misinformation or false information, and discern truth from hypocrisy. Some "claimed truths" may be enticingly designed to attract and deceive true, pure, and real facts. Use discretion, aligned with your belief system, to decipher fact from fiction, good from bad, and righteous from evil.
Rational-based decisions. Rather than a natural inclination, a wisdom-based decision is established using sound reasoning that encapsulates the experience, observed information, or some other gathered knowledge. It does not rely upon a "feeling" and desire, and rather, it entails a proven base of results generally stemming from an actual experience. Wisdom can be based on observing others and learning from their successes and failures or even learning from your own successes and failures. Perhaps spend time talking with or reading about successful people who have already accomplished what you want. They obviously have the knowledge if they have already reached the level they are at and you wish to achieve.
Value-based information. Wisdom should be value-based, meaning you are aligning what you learn with the belief system you follow. Aligning and applying knowledge based on your values is true and successful wisdom. All information can and must be aligned with your belief system for wise application
Insightful decisions. With acquired wisdom, you are better able to make insightful and prudent decisions. You will have a deep understanding and an intelligent application of knowledge in order to respond in an astute, honorable, and ethical frame of reference.
Value-based results. Not only will you have instinctively value-based information, but with discerning wisdom, you will receive value-based results because of the effort and knowledge that went into the decision-making process. You "get out what you put in, "so to speak. Using discretion in collecting thoughts and information provides a preprogrammed value-based outcome.
Efficiency. Not only is a process more efficient when wisdom is applied, but the outcome is generally more efficient. Wisdom is a gift that keeps on giving, and it provides benefits during and even after the process has been completed. As wisdom is a collection of information from life experiences and absorbed information, the best, most efficient, and most effective processes are harnessed and utilized, allowing for a successful and promising outcome.
Peace. Wisdom creates and leads to peace and serenity. Once you have collected the information, you better understand the situation and the best possible evidence-based solutions or processes. There is power in knowledge, and this leads to peace. When you know you did your best, tried your hardest, and worked the smartest way possible, contentment and peace pervade and permeate your environment. You can better accept the circumstances and results as you proceed using all-inclusive yet discretionary wisdom.
Success. No matter the outcome, knowing you utilized the wisest information and made rational decisions based on your well-refined information, you have already succeeded. If the project result happens to be unfavorable, you have just gained more wisdom and know another method of how not to proceed or what to avoid. This new information can be added to your toolbox as fresh new wisdom to enrich your next and all future choices or decisions. Know how to use this knowledge.

“To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.” Marilyn vos Savant

“We seem to gain wisdom more readily through our failures than through our successes. We always think of failure as the antithesis of success, but it isn’t. Success often lies just the other side of failure.” Leo Buscagalia

“Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom.” Charles Spurgeon

“Knowledge is knowing what to say. Wisdom is knowing when to say it.” Anonymous