While education is important and necessary, having intelligence is not the same as having wisdom. Think about the people you know who are highly intelligent and well accomplished: Do they all make good decisions, and do they live meaningful lives?
As someone who spent the majority of my life in school becoming a doctor and then becoming a doctor scientist, I am grateful for my education. It taught me how to practice medicine and do research. My education also helped define who I am.
But I realize that nowhere in my studies did I learn about how to really live life, make good decisions, and give valuable advice. Nowhere.
Searching for answers, I found the secret to living a good life in my research study aimed at defining wisdom. After interviewing 60 “wise” adults, I scientifically identified the eight elements that contribute to wisdom to help others master these skills.
During back-to-school month, take time to strengthen these eight wisdom life skills that are never taught in school. These essential traits are based on my wisdom study and Common Wisdom book, and they can help you increase your joy, happiness, and success.
1. Resilience: Helps You Overcome Obstacles
Resilience is the idea that, regardless of the obstacle faced, you keep moving forward. You do not give up. You are a warrior, not a victim. While obstacles are difficult, they are lessons that help you build your mental muscle and prove that a hardship can be overcome.
2. Kindness: Helps You Solve Conflicts
Kindness is not weakness, but strength and confidence. It can solve many conflicts. You want to surround yourself with kindness and be kind to yourself.
Showing kindness toward others can help you build more meaningful relationships. It is easy to be kind, and it’s free. So take time out of every day to do something kind for someone else. Your kindness will be forever remembered by others.
3. Positivity: Counters Negativity
Positivity is about perspective. While you can’t control your environment, you can control your thoughts. Positivity attracts positivity and can often counter negativity. Thinking positive thoughts can help you gain perspective about what is really important in your life. Make time to be positive every day, and recognize that you deserve to be happy.
4. Spirituality: Brings You Comfort and Peace
Spirituality is the belief that a higher power exists. This belief can bring you comfort and peace. You can’t see or explain this higher power, but you can feel it. It is watching over you and guiding you through your life.
5. Humility: Heightens Your Emotional Intelligence
Humility is a virtue that has been recognized throughout time. Humility allows you to nurture better social connections. Recognizing your strengths and weaknesses without feeling superior to others can heighten your sense of emotional intelligence. As a humble person, you are down-to-earth and do not feel big by making others feel small.
6. Tolerance: Opens Your Mind to Others’ Opinions
Tolerance also allows you to build better social connections. As a tolerant person, you are open-minded and considerate of others’ perspectives. You recognize people will not always share your views. You are not judgmental or prejudiced. As a tolerant person, you realize that everyone is important and deserves respect.
7. Creativity: Transcends Your Ideas
Creativity is an innate quality that we’ve all had since childhood. It allows for imagination that goes beyond possibilities. The challenge is that as you grow older, chaos and negativity can make you hesitant to be creative.
It’s important to enhance this wisdom skill because it allows you to have thoughts that transcend your ideas. Being creative allows you to question what is and then think about what could be. Your creative ideas can make not only your life better, but in many cases, they can help others improve their lives, too.
8. Curiosity: Teaches You to Question Simple Concepts
Curiosity is the quality that makes us human and is a driving force of wisdom. It helps us question simple concepts and allows us to learn, change, and grow. Similar to creativity, curiosity is an innate talent that you’ve had since childhood. Being curious means that you never take things at face value. You feel comfortable questioning the most obvious and simple concepts in order to enhance your life.
After facing challenging health issues, I was getting textbook answers from doctors with no solutions. So I decided to study wisdom and created “The Wisdom Research Project.” I interviewed people who think outside the box, “the wise,” to learn from their experiences. I needed the idea of wisdom to be broken down and better explained. To help you, I wrote my book with the results and relatable stories from people I interviewed.
Prior to my study, wisdom was more of a broad idea that was not well-defined. I felt like my definition of wisdom was, “I know it when I see it.” As a scientist, I needed more objectivity and granularity. My wisdom study results gave me the secret sauce to living a life of purpose filled with joy and peace—one that we all seek.
Wisdom is life intelligence. It is not related to the degrees and accolades that you’ve received. It involves making good life decisions, giving sound advice, and living a life of purpose and meaning. With social media taking an even greater role in our lives, wisdom has taken a back seat. However, if you ask any parent what qualities they want in their child, it’s probably a combination of these eight essential life skills.
These wisdom skills are extremely important for everyone to learn as a foundation for their success and inner peace. Some may lack one of these life skills and be great at another element. And that is OK. By becoming more aware of your strengths, you can practice the wisdom skills that need more love to enrich your life.
