IT WAS a well-known barista's birthday today and I asked: "Do you feel a year older?"
They replied: "Yeah, and I was ready to move on from that age."
"Did you learn anything in the last year?" I asked.
The answer was humorous to me and, because I like sharing, here it is.
"Yeah I did - it's not like I learned to walk but, you know ... I learned some stuff."
Another year older, another year wiser, eh? I hear this comment often, but I wonder if age equally translates to wisdom or if there are things you need to do to aid in the process.
There's an old saying that wisdom comes from learning something (gaining knowledge) and then doing something with it (taking action).
If we learn something - like our barista has this past year - and we do nothing with it other than know it, are we any wiser? I think not because we miss out on the feeling that comes from doing something with it, the pleasure of finding out the bits we don't know, the subtleties and finer points that strengthen the knowledge we gained.
For instance, at some stage early on in our lives we typically learn that being selfish is not something that serves us well. Other people may not like it, even if it gets you what you want. If we do something with that knowledge, we can learn the subtleties - like you can actually get what you want if you serve others and help them achieve what they want to achieve.
This subtlety was lost on me for many a year until recently when I finally decided to do something about it and use the knowledge to create the wisdom and live a different life. What I have learned is that when I use what I know and learn more about the simple concepts in life - the concepts I often took for granted - I could create more peace in life.
This might seem like a simple concept in itself, and you might be asking: "Why could you not see that being selfish does not help you, Scott?"
I believe it is because while we are all the same, we are all different and we learn at different speeds. I was a slow learner on this one but I'd like to think I'm picking up steam with my learning and will be a better me in another year and will actually be another year wiser.
Too often I see people say things in a nasty way to others, people taking a hard line when a softer approach will still get the outcome and not leave the other person feeling powerless or humiliated in front of others. Often it's to our loved ones, because we know they will forgive us more readily than less significant people.
Why not give the softer approach a go - listen and love, it's far nicer in the giving and the receiving.
I know our barista will do something with some of what they have learned as they have a "go get 'em" mindset, and they will also choose not to do things with other learnings from the past year, but they will build and strengthen some wisdom.
Wisdom helps strengthen our wellbeing and happiness and creates more peace in our lives. What learnings will you reflect on this week that you want to create wisdom with?
-If you want to discuss anything about this as a
concept or find out more about love and money, call Scott on
027 236 7729 or email him at scott@loveandmoneynetwork.com.
“It was basically ruined."