Make Better Decisions with Wisdom

It's good to be smart, but what's even better is being smart and wise. People make decisions every day and some of those decisions not just affect themselves but potentially many other people as well, and so it is important to ensure the best decisions are being made, and that is where wisdom comes in.

What is wisdom? By definition, it is the quality of being wise -- having knowledge and experience to make good judgement. To expand on that, I think it is a full understanding of yourself -- self-awareness [youtube] -- and everything around you -- full-awareness -- and being able to use that knowledge to make good decisions that not just benefiting yourself but also others. Selfish behaviors can be smart but can never be wise as it means one lacks the insight to see the full picture beyond one's own image.  Being able to see the full picture, that's the start of wisdom.

How does one become wise? I think it starts with self-awareness, followed by full-awareness, and finally combine them with knowledge/experience.

How does one become self-aware and then fully aware? I think it starts with asking oneself the hard questions and answering them. Why do we exist? What's the meaning of life? Who am I? What am I doing? Why am I doing it? What is emotion? Why doesn't my parent understand me? Why is that person so angry? What's my passion? What am I bad at? What am I good at? What can I do to become a better person? What is human? What's the difference between you and a chicken in terms of the right to live and consume each other? What makes you tick? Why are you reading this? Know thyself and be curious: question everything and answer every question.

Knowledge is what you learn. The more you know, the smarter you get. There is a difference between knowing and doing, and that's where experience comes in. An example is compassion -- being able to understand other people's feelings and have the desire to help others. Knowing compassion is not enough, but experience it many times to gain fuller understanding of other's and oneself's emotions.

Once one becomes wise, better decisions are made, and everyone's happier. Win win.

This is part of the Great Leadership Traits blog series.