Popular Beliefs on Becoming Wise

A popular belief says, “The older you get, the wiser you become”. The others refute by saying, “everyone becomes wise through their life experience”. Then, we hear the truth seeker ask, “What really makes people wise? Age, experience, or even studies?”

I was that truth seeker. I used to be super excited in finding a certain answer of how humans become wise. Ever since I understood what it means, I always thought of this question and brought it up as a self-talk discussion before sleeping at nights. I tried one popular belief, checked if that works for people I observed, and switched to the others after figuring out the one I followed doesn’t seem valid.

I started by taking the first popular belief. “The older we get, the wiser we become”. I ended up finding many older people don’t learn from their mistakes, don’t really solve problems they cause in their mid-20s – early 30s; they make it worse instead. I see from various cases, those people even completely rely on others advice when dealing with obstacles.

I switched to follow the second that says, “Everyone becomes wise through their life experience”. I paid more attention to people with independent living, for example the ones that build their new lives abroad. Obviously, I found the opposite to the first. However, some of them were self-centered, not humbled to hear diversities due to a feeling of being the most knowledgeable ones.

I got nothing from those two popular beliefs.  I added more question on my brain; so it wasn’t just about which ones get people wise, but also how the same things can shape different levels of wisdom. After thinking and observing deep plus wondering on and off, now I’m coming back with simple thoughts that have finally relieved myself.

Simple Thoughts on Becoming Wise

Why do I say becoming wise instead of being wise in the title and headings? You might be wondering why. Well, it relates to my simple thoughts below.

My first thought would be: wisdom within ourselves is not an outcome we expect after school. Deeper than that, being wise is a type of living life that we have to become. Being wise is a type of person that’s shaped by a process called personal growth. However, it firstly starts with intelligence on some certain levels; doesn’t always associate with academic level.

Why do you still need intelligence to be wise? How important is it to shape wisdom?

To me, being smart / intelligent must be a door to be wise. Intelligent people are used to a lot of learnings (including wisdom learnings), so they are ready with a lot of ways to gather, analyze, and solve problems. They also have critical thinking abilities to strengthen their comprehension. Later, intelligence and critical thinking are their keys to implementing wisdom properly and behaving maturely.

To me, being wise means applying how to think, act and react in mature ways, not just understanding how. So, it is not complete to just seeing wisdom through age, experience and studies.

Above all that, it must be seen through one’s attitude. And the attitude of wise people is maturity that starts with learning, understanding, and implementing what they know in the right situation and place. You’re not always able to see how people learn, but you can always notice implementations.

Maturity itself sounds like common sense, right? It sounds like what everyone knows about, right? It’s not something out of our world, right?

Indeed it means so. Being mature is something common to learn in life. Look, you don’t need to study at best schools or even wait until 50 years old to be mature, you just need a strong desire to be smart and then apply your smartness controllably. But, here’s the thing.

A little while ago, I have just read an article by    Darius Foroux and found something that I strongly agree on. He mentioned that people know the same common senses (learning well, being mature, living life normally, making decision carefully), but not everyone applies what they know. Now, that answers why same age and experience make different shape of people, right? And that explains why young people can be more mature than the elderly folks.

So, it’s all crystal clear. Instead of seeing wisdom through age, experience and studies, you can notice it through mature behaviors. Only maturity tells how wise we are.

Age doesn’t make you wise if you still cannot solve problems on your own, cannot handle obstacles and responsibilities, and cannot get rid of selfishness. Experience doesn’t shape wisdom if you become self-centered and close minded. Studies also mean nothing if you don’t apply what you learn from them. They will only make you smarter than before, but your smartness still makes no sense if it’s not applicable.

After reading my simple thoughts on becoming wise, I want you to not put limit on people’s way of thinking, actions and reactions. I really hope there’s no more responses like “How can they think / act / behave that way at baby ages?” There’s nothing wrong with being intelligent, mature and wise at a young age. Being wise is considered as long soul evolution process, and so we must be proud seeing anyone goes fast forward through it.

Maturity Examples

I’ve been mentioning the importance of seeing wisdom through mature behaviors instead of age, experience and studies, but I haven’t written any example of them. Don’t be worried, please. I will write them below to complete this thought sharing.

Read Widely, Learn from Everything

This is why you start with intelligence. You’ll meet a lot of learnings, and only intelligent people won’t get shocked. In order to be wise, you need to read and deeply understand what you read / observe.

If you cannot find any new interesting book, try reading people like a magazine. This habit is also called lifelong learning. It is literally a wisdom-boosting process from every tools in every environment.

Books and courses are two of your learning resource, but they’re not all of a bunch out there. You still have other people stories to learn from (both their success and failure), your own mistake to evaluate, etc. Never get tired of broadening your knowledge, understanding different ideas, and hearing perspectives you never know about. Never get bored of learning from your own stories, your surroundings, expertise, etc.

Think in Silence

Remember, becoming wise is all about being mature in thinking, taking action, and producing reaction. So, you need to think a lot. You need to be sure about having complete focus on whatever you handle.

You can take a pause from learning, reading or observing yourself and others. After feeding your mind with a lot of stuff, you can sit and start thinking in silence. Quiet places help you concentrate better. Thinking in silence helps you to avoid the same mistake and prevent any misunderstanding.

Thinking in silence can be done at any time you need. When not knowing how to take up a responsibility, for example. Mainly when you need more focus to listen to your mind.

Choose the quiet room that you think your best spot. Make sure there’s only you, then come in and start thinking. Use that moment to think about solutions, decisions, or even future plans to implement into your life. The more time you spend for thinking in silence, the better you are in making strategies and solving problems.

Involve Yourself in Discussions

After pushing away from people for a little while, do not forget to interact and converse again. You can make discussions with anyone you feel comfortable talking. It can be with friends, family, or even colleagues. Also, joining online forums can be an alternative way if that works for you.

Wise people are always excited in enhancing what they know and sharing them out. If you want to be a wise one, try to get involved in discussions. Train your mind to share informations or even educate people and spread awareness.

It’s good to test how you react to different responses, and it helps you to gain more than you previously know. Generally, conversing enables you to show empathy and offer help in friendly ways. Furthermore, joining discussions help you measure your level of maturity and emotional manageability. The more discussion you involve yourself into, the more benefit you get.

Appreciate Yourself and Others

After all, you need to treat yourself as good as treating others. Or, if you are more familiar with putting self-care as priority, then check if you treat others as well as how you care for yourself. By balancing your attention, you wisely maintain your sense of responsibility.

Closing Statement

Wise is a type of person we have to become, and becoming wise is not about how old or young, experienced or inexperienced and graded or ungraded. Age doesn’t make you wise if you cannot handle responsibilities and obstacles, experience doesn’t shape wisdom either if it makes you stay egoistic. Also, studies don’t get the same if you cannot apply any wisdom you know. Everyone still has the same chance to be wise, as long as they have intelligence to read widely, learn from everything, think critically and behave maturely.

A wise person must understand what responsibility they’re taking up, while implementing what they know. They need to take action and reaction in the right situation. Wisdom is not judged by age, experience and studies, but it’s supposed to be measured through the level of maturity. Only mature behaviors can tell how wise we are.

I highly appreciate all of you for clicking this post. I look forward to hear your feedback. Please leave me some comments here!