Knowledge is Costly but Wisdom is Priceless
I feel I have a level of intelligence that has both served me and hindered me. Through my younger years (& yes, even now at times) it was more ego-driven intelligence. As I mature and lean in, it’s more emotional intelligence leading the charge.
Most things in life have a cost or price to them. Knowledge has a cost – we pay for the privilege to learn from others. Wisdom has a price requiring self-discovery, assessment and reassessment constantly.
Someone can teach us to do something and we gain the knowledge of how to do it. Once we learn this skill, we have an opportunity to use it in our lives & bring it through us. This is how it becomes wisdom (not whether it worked or didn’t work but in the use of the information, we expand it into wisdom).
We can gain so much by listening and learning about the experiences of other people.
Knowledge is external – it is given to us through the filters, belief systems and understanding of someone else. Therefore, it is a culmination of what we learn. We gain by reading, watching, taking courses, workshops, & asking others for help. We use our intellect to stimulate our brains to expand our knowledge base – to gain insight and information to broaden our understanding. This leads to the promise of better decisions and choices. Whereas, wisdom is the embodiment of this knowledge that we have acquired.
Knowledge impacts our lives but Wisdom can impact our Souls.
Acquiring knowledge is necessary to broaden our ability to read the world. Wisdom is an active by-product of internalizing the learning to inform our spiritual compass. With knowledge – we often react to life but with Wisdom, we can respond.
Knowledge on its own is valuable but it’s when we take this information inside – bring it through us & into our lives that it becomes invaluable. We need to feel what is right for us – what resonates and what doesn’t – what is outside our belief system – what challenges us to open our hearts and minds to grow and heal. By bringing it within, that incorporates this knowledge into the cells of our being to deepen our understanding of ourselves and life itself.
Creating wisdom from knowledge also has a price. It requires a depth of vulnerability and willingness to go into the shadows and fully see ourselves - perfectly imperfect. It demands that we do our inner work – to shine the light into the corners, to question everything we think we know, to let go of the need to be right or in control all the time. Wisdom will tax you physically, emotionally, spiritually and intellectually. It will cost you the false image of who you should be and create great discomfort while stretching you beyond your limiting thoughts and beliefs. It creates space for more.
I’ve met many very intelligent people – many very well-educated people, but the wisest souls I know, continue to be students in life. They constantly stay open to different ideas, ideals, points of view and ways of being. They don’t get ‘locked into’ one way. In that vulnerability, they awaken an internal wisdom that continues to feed off the knowledge it acquires to grow, expand and heal through integration of all it assimilates.
I love learning and being in a position to question everything as it serves my curiosity and heart fire to heal myself and become the best version of me that I can possibly be. It’s a humbling venture and I adore and cringe at the challenge everyday.
Lean in – observe – and see what knowledge you’ve gained over the years that is itching to be integrated into your cells to add to the wisdom of your soul.