How Do I Know I Am Doing The Right Thing?
How familiar are you with your intuition and your inner wisdom?
This may seem like a random question but the answer is of great importance, even more so when we are talking about the difference between knowledge and wisdom.
You can have the highest degree of education or have the most intellectually challenging career, that still doesn’t mean you are a wise person. If you are an expert or famous in your field, that doesn’t make you the greatest role model in wisdom. The question then becomes: what is the difference between being knowledgeable and wise?
Having knowledge: You have facts, information, skills acquired through experiences or education, and the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject. You use your knowledge to maneuver through the challenges of daily life and use it for:
Making improvements in your life: When you set out and follow a certain path, you rely on your knowledge to guide you in the right direction; it is all based on facts, information and experience.
Building a business or career: To build a business or career you need to follow some logical steps, plus have the education and the drive to accomplish where you want to end up.
Creating a strategy for achieving your goals: To figure out how to achieve your goals and what you need to do to accomplish them.
Analyzing a possible outcome of an event or thought: You use your knowledge to make the best decisions for yourself with the knowledge you have at that moment in time, and also to predict the outcome of an occurrence you had set in motion by action or thought.
Being wise
You say; this person has knowledge or is wise. The explanation is in the detail. When you “have” something; that means you can acquire it, by buying or gaining it through experience or schooling. It becomes more complicated and when you “are” recognized as wise. Wisdom is inside you, it is much more then education, experiences, information or skills.
Knowledge comes from the outside whereas wisdom comes from the inside. Wise people have the following common trades:
The way they question everything: by questioning everything you ever heard, read, learned or even experienced.
Looking for the truth: You don’t get swept up in the drama of life, but are looking what is truth in every situation.
Being optimistic: Believe there is a solution for every problem not from an intellectual place but from your intuitive side.
Being flexible, adaptable to the uncertainties in life: You lean on your intuition/ inner wisdom to deal with the changes you encounter in life.
By being calm in facing the challenges of life: Challenges happen every day, you have the choice on how you deal with it. When you are wise you are aware of this choice and choose the calm, and understanding approach.
Have the ability to see the big picture in life: Often you will see where your choices of the way you talk and act will lead you.
Life experiences: The different life experiences you have and acknowledge what you learned from them.
So, when are you doing the right thing? By making the wise decision to consult your intuition and inner wisdom before you give answers or deal with life challenging questions and situations.
To do this, that takes practice, the answers are in the silence and the wise will hear the answers.
The more you practice to find your own inner voice through meditation, self discovery and by questioning everything you experience through your five senses; the better you can answer the question, Am I doing the right thing, in this situation?
Your inner wisdom will never steer you wrong, it may give you the answers you don’t want to hear but it will never steer you wrong.
Contact Ellen Nyland if you want to create more wisdom in your life. Ellen is an Transition Coach that helps individuals and families navigate the big and small forks in life’s road. You can read more in Ellen’s book; Life is Great Even When it Sucks
