#Mywordfortoday is practical #wisdom

#Mywordfortoday is practical #wisdom

Phew!!! I think fate is playing a cruel joke on me, for I am the least person qualified to write on wisdom, having made some rather foolish decisions in both my personal and professional life.

But then again, the universe is conniving to help me arrange stuff that I would write about.

Yesterday, our #dailywritingchallenge theme was on perseverance, and the key point I strove to make in my piece was that "Brilliance or Talent" is never enough.

Today, I am writing on wisdom and from my perspective on applying wisdom, brilliance or intelligence or intellect is also not enough.

You can be intelligent and consistently make unwise decisions.

So what is wisdom? I can not even deign to answer this because I do not consider myself an authority on the subject.

However the Bible from where I will be drawing heavily from describes wisdom as "being the principal thing", it goes further to say " wisdom is profitable to direct".

This for me means that in making decisions in life, it is important to do by applying wisdom.

How does one apply wisdom? There is a plethora of books, videos and talks about this, but my takeaway from all of it is that to apply wisdom, you must understand wisdom in the context of your application.

Stay with me 😀 Growing up in South-Western Nigeria, we had different "wisdom" proverbs to teach us everything from life to relationships to careers. Our movies are usually didactic, seeking to teach us the art of wisdom.

In speaking, they would enjoin us to put our thoughts into what we say because spoken words are like an egg, once it is broken, it cannot be put together again.

But is wisdom a purely moral concept? In my opinion, No, wisdom speaks to the practicality of things, can I do a sex video, absolutely, should I do a sex video, probably not.

Wisdom is also situational, let me use the year 2000 movie "Rules of Engagement" that featured Samuel L. Jackson.

In that movie, he had shot in the head, the radioman for the Vietnamese side. The Radioman was to be considered a POW. He shot him because, in his wisdom, that was one of the ways by which he (Jackson) could save the lives of his men.

On trial, his opponent on the other side said were he in Jackson's shoes, he would do the same. (I know this example might raise brows) but it buttresses the fact that wisdom sometimes may be considered, well immoral.

Is wisdom knowledge, absolutely not, if it were, we would not have a lot of knowledgeable people make such patently unwise decisions.....the Enron debacle comes to mind.

Is it possible to be wise at all times...LOL No. If it is impossible to right all the time, then you cannot be wise all the time.

Let's nip into the Bible real quick. King Solomon asked and was blessed with Wisdom. He then married so many women from different backgrounds that he lost his godly ways and began to practice idolatry, I mean this was a man who specifically asked for and received wisdom.

As I said at the beginning of this writeup, I am not qualified to write about wisdom, I do know that in acquiring some modicum of wisdom, we must remain open-minded, we must also endeavour not to hold too much to our opinions or ideas, it is unwise in the face of superior argument to hold on to your POV because of ego.

Life is a teacher, and learn we must if we want to be able to apply wisdom.

Remember wisdom is the principal thing.

Bibire Omotoyosi Salihu

28042020

#Mywordfortoday is building your #perseverance Muscle.

Over the last few days, i joined a #dailywritingchallenge,, so i thought i'd post what i had written in the last couple of days. 

So here's one:

#Mywordfortoday is building your #perseverance   muscle.

A few weeks, I wrote about the mechanics of being average, read here https://bit.ly/3eWJxrU.

This article sought to show that a natural curse of talented or brilliant people is that many times, they tend to underperform or perform at sub-par levels inconsistent with their natural or actual abilities.

This is probably because brilliant people are blessed with an innate ability to grasp concepts quickly. And so, they tend to leave stuff to the last minute and it piles up, leading to an overload of sorts.

Could we link the foregoing, I am going to call it a disability😄 to a lack of perseverance?

I listened to a tedtalk by Angela Lee Duckworth where she, in the course of her research found that talent or brilliance is never enough.

If you will not persevere with your passion, you will continue to operate at sub-optimal levels.

From my viewpoint, grit or perseverance isn't just about having the courage or resolve to stay in situations others found intolerable (this is certainly a part of it), it is having the resolve to make of your circumstances the best that you can and be successful at doing this.

An illustration will best enunciate my point. In Nigeria, my country, we find people stuck in careers basically because they feel they do not have place else to go.

The result is the inability to do the job they chose to stay in and frustration with the "hands that life has thrown at them".

This is why mere resolve to stay put in a place is in my view not persevering.

Perseverance is determining to make the best use of the circumstances you are in, taking absolute control of what which is in your control and making a success of it.

I should point out that even when you enjoy what you do, challenges will arise, life loves to "set leg" for one( this is Nigeria-speak for obstacles in one's path)and the only way to excel is to be tenacious.

Is there a way to develop your perseverance muscle? Is there any science we can turn to for help?

According to Ms. Duckworth, one of the ways to build your grittiness is to develop a growth mindset which is essentially learning that growth is not fixed, the ability to grow grows with effort.

So learning to persevere might simply be as little as putting in more effort in reaching a goal. I had written about strength in one of my write-ups and said that for me, strength is the ability to carry on, even in the face of defeat.

To end this piece, I will go back to my opening, talent or brilliance is never enough If you will not be resilient or tenacious.

You must find a way to dip down inside you and push on, you will experience frustration, your motivation will ebb, you will make mistakes and you will fail, but you have got to keep at it.

And when you are tempted to give up, remember Darwin was considered by his father to be a very ordinary boy possessing a "rather low intellect".

Success is not as a function of your brilliance, it is more of your ability to persevere, your grit, your passion, your resilience.

One of the ways to better build my writing is joining this #dailywritingchallenge in order to hone my skills and more importantly share my ideas, and perhaps change the mindset of a person who is reading this.

Bibire Omotoyosi Salihu🌹

#Mywordfortoday is #curiousity, a double-edged sword.

I am starting my piece today with a quote from Wolfgang Rieber "everyone is gifted but some people never open the packages".

Life is a lifelong learning process, a process that involves an adventure, experimentation, success, failure and a chance to do over. 

These concepts I have written above are almost inescapable, for in life we will all have an opportunity to experience all of these concepts whether we like it or not.

But what is excised from some of us is the art of being curious. I dare say we were born with curiosity, it is in my view a very basic attribute but depending on how we were raised, this attribute may be enhanced or excised from our psyche.

A few years ago, I read the Jewish phenomenon by Stephen Silbiger. He said that at the root of the enduring wealth of the Jewish people lies seven keys, one of which is curiosity ( this is a summary of course). Curiosity is encouraged in Jewish children, they are encouraged to speak up and build their confidence.

 A Jewish child is not only seen but must be heard.

In fact, Jewish children are taught and encouraged to critically question everything including fundamental religious doctrine.

I was a precocious child given to asking several questions and I was indulged by my parents and guardians, I was also discovered early on to be a southpaw and everyone in my family rallied to ensure that no teacher or person attempted to force me to use my right hand. In those days, being left-handed was somewhat discouraged.  

My grandma was known to be very combative with forcing my right to use " the hand God gifted her" with.

My precocious behaviour was encouraged by everyone around me at this time, and with this, my curiosity grew.

Curiosity is defined by Wikipedia as the "desire to gain knowledge or information". Ken Robinson said curiosity is the engine of achievement.

Curious people actively seek information and are willing to meet challenges in order to broaden their Horizons. Curiosity is an important trait to possess and every intellectual giant has this trait.

Albert Einstein is quoted as saying, "the most important thing is not to stop questioning... never lose a holy curiosity. Curiosity has its own reason for existing".

But why is curiosity important, why did Einstein think it so important? I believe that curiosity helps our minds remain active, it activates the brain. I have always believed that our minds operated like a muscle so mentally exercising it continuously by questioning everything makes our minds stronger.

Einstein (My hero of curiosity) said he would stay with an idea or a problem when everyone had left it, he would turn it over in his mind, in the shower, in the kitchen, he would keep questioning until the answers become apparent.

Curiosity is such a critical part of our psyche that we must always encourage our children never to stop being inquisitive, let them ask questions, no question is too silly to be asked. It will build their ability to think critically. Doctor Seuss did say, in support of critical thinking " I love nonsense, it activates the brain".

Curiosity is important at all levels of our lives and education. There is virtually no profession that does not require one to be curious if one is to succeed.

 Science has proven that being curious makes our brains more receptive to learning in fact curiosity lights up that area of our brain that is related to reward and pleasure, it releases a feel-good sort of chemical in us. So if we won't learn, we won't live, and the adventure that is life may pass us by.

Can we as adults learn to be curious? Can we activate the art of being curious? Can being curious help us at managerial levels to make better business decisions? My answer is absolutely.

I do know that like we do our children, adult curiosity is stifled in various organisations but such organisations will find that they will not grow beyond the mediocre ways they have created. 

This is because stifling curiosity may cause one to fall prey to confirmation bias,  leading one to make fatal business decisions that may sink the business.

Curiosity, however, is not always positive, it is, in fact, a double-edged sword, we have seen the number of lives disrupted by unwarranted curiosity.

Unbridled curiosity may lead one down a dark path. Lady Diana of Great Britain was killed following an intense spotlight into a private life which led to the tragic auto crash that claimed her life.

Paparazzi has caused untold suffering in the lives of many celebrities. curiosity drove Pandora to open the box in spite of being warned of the Dire consequences.

Curiosity illuminates the mind, it drives learning and innovation, but nary a thing in the adventure of life that does not require balance.

Understanding the need to always apply balance is key in making curiosity work for us in ways that will drive us to make positive decisions.

What will you do today to develop healthy curiosity?

According to @momentswithBren "learning to learn is an invaluable skill".

To learning,

Bibire Omotoyosi Salihu🌹

04052020