Are you considered wise?
What is wisdom and what is its role in life, love and leadership?
Life requires wisdom to be enjoyed and lived. Rejection or lack of wisdom reduces the ability of a person to make the right decisions whether practical, relational, emotional, mental, or spiritual. This affects different areas of life including our moral, ethical, practical, financial or social standing.
Wisdom on the other hand, equips the person with knowledge, understanding, discernment, judgment, and the ability to act prudently in most circumstances. This ability of a person affords them reputation, credibility, and a community status that are not enjoyed by many.
Wisdom is required in all spheres of life: public and private; social and political; financial and family relationships; leadership and followership.
Wisdom (Wiz-duhm or “wizdəm”) is defined as the ability or result of an ability to think and act utilizing knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense, and insight; the soundness of mind. [Oxford Dictionaries] Wisdom is a combination of two words: “wise” and “–dom”.
To have wisdom, then, is to achieve a state or a status, to be appointed or gain the rank reserved for special group of people, to have claimed the domain of a certain few. What are the characteristics of this status, or this domain, or this rank?
King Solomon was known for his wisdom and wisdom writings.
He wrote the following:
“… for attaining wisdom and discipline; for understanding words of insight; for acquiring a disciplined and prudent life, doing what is right and just and fair; for giving prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the young – let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance.” (Proverbs Chapter 1, The Holy Bible, New International Version, Zondervan)
In this introduction to His collection of proverbs, King Solomon indicated that wisdom is intrinsically linked to a number of key ingredients: understanding, discipline, prudence, doing what is right and fair, knowledge and discretion. He also added that there were two active disciplines we need to have in order to gain wisdom from what is known around us: listen to learn, and be guided to practice. 
How does this apply to life, love and leadership?
To be considered a wise person in life, love as a leader, it requires the person to be
- Disciplined
- Always seeking insights and knowledge
- Prudent
- Treating others correctly and fairly
- Listening to learn
- Asking others for guidance
To be considered wise is not to mistaken for being an expert. A wise person has not achieved his potential yet as they are always learning. An expert knows everything about a subject and therefore they may have stopped learning. This takes them out of the domain of the wise.
Wisdom is about knowing, feeling and doing. Wisdom is about gathering information, knowledge, insights, and input from others and processing them into practical disciplined steps to improve life for oneself and others. Wisdom is about the transfer of learning from head knowledge in to the day-to-day practice of life, love and leadership.
Here are three simple steps to help us on our journey to gain wisdom from every situation in life, love and leadership. Whenever we are faced with a situation, event, decision, or circumstance we can ask these simple questions:
- What can I learn from this?
- What is the right and fair thing to do here?
- What behavior do I need to change for the better?
The prudent and wise thing to do is that once you get your answers, set them in motion.
You may need to read books, ask others, listen to wise people, or you may need to get some coaching and mentoring to assist you to change and grow.
Once you do it once, it is imperative that you keep practicing these steps, and then you grow in your discipline and in your wisdom in life, love and leadership.