Happiness, Health, Wisdom and Wealth ^™

Wisdom

Wisdom is the third most important thing in your life. We don't mean intelligence, or education. Our definition of wisdom is: "Wisdom – a state of being measuring the ability to acquire and use knowledge to solve problems effectively."

Intelligence is a measure of how fast you learn. Education is a measure of how much you have learned. Wisdom is a measure of the quality and usefulness of your learning. A lot of intelligent folks have demonstrated that they can learn garbage very quickly. A lot of well educated folks have demonstrated that they can learn a lot of garbage. Wise folks demonstrate that they are careful not to learn garbage. They are very selective. They learn what will be most valuable to them. They learn how to use their knowledge to improve their lives and the lives of those around them.

Once there was a girl, a high school student. She was in 'special', 'slow' classes. At the start of a new school year, the regulations changed and she was required to be 'mainstreamed', put into regular classes. After a couple of weeks of school she was failing algebra. Her teacher called her to his desk while the other students were working to see if tutoring could be arranged. During the conversation the girl said, "How many pairs of shoes do you have?"

"What?", replied the teacher, "I really don't know, why?"

"Well, it's the third week of school and you haven't worn the same pair twice."

"I really don't keep track. Why are you so interested in my shoes?"

"Oh", she said in a condescending tone, "It's not just YOUR shoes."