Four Roads to Wisdom

A very wise person once said that if you were to seek wisdom, there are four sentences that you would need to learn and live by. I must admit that I scoffed (silently, of course, if wouldn’t do to scoff aloud at something a sage has said). If it were that simple, why wasn’t everyone doing it? Why isn’t the world a better place?

Why indeed. It doesn’t take monumental sacrifices in your life to achieve wisdom using these truths. You may have to set your ego aside in order to do them, but that would be a good thing if we had a little less ego involvement and a little more humility in this world. Right?

The truth of the matter is that the sentences are elegant, yet simple. If you think about each sentence, you can understand why there is great wisdom in it.

Here are the four sentences.

I’m Sorry

Have you noticed that there are far too many people who are unable to say, “I’m sorry,” and mean it? Perhaps if we were more willing to say, “I’m sorry,” it would significantly reduce hostility. However, in order to say,”I’m sorry,” we have to tamp down our raging ego. The latter is very hard, and presumably impossible, for too many people.

I’m Was Wrong

Some people stubbornly refuse to admit when they’re wrong. Why is that? I’ve noticed that people with even a modicum of power in their hands (bosses, supervisors, teachers, etc., etc.) are incapable of admitting they are wrong. What do they think will happen if they do admit being wrong? I suspect they think the world will fall apart. It won’t. An admission of wrong may stun some people, but the world will remain in tact - even their world.

I Need Help

This one is so hard for nearly everyone. Asking for help is tantamount to admitting a vulnerability, which, in turn, means we are weak, less than, not powerful. However, everyone needs help at some time. It takes a strong, confident person to ask for help when it is needed.

I Don’t Know

Too many people think that admitting that they don’t know something is admitting that they are stupid or ignorant. People don’t seem to realize that admitting that you don’t know something is being smart. How else can we learn anything new?

Easy to Implement

Didn’t I say that these roads to wisdom were simple and easy to implement? Well, maybe not so easy to implement, but certainly doable nevertheless.

Using These in Your Writing

I was trying to figure out how to get one of my characters out of sticky situation the other day. Then it came to me. How many problems between my characters can be solved or avoided by one of these sentences? So I had my character use one of these sentences. Voila! Problem solved.