The dictionary qualifies wisdom as the ability to discern or judge what is true, right, or lasting. Knowing what is true, right or lasting is knowledge. To apply that knowledge for good is wisdom. By this equation it is not wrong to say that people may have tremendous knowledge but very little wisdom.
Thinking about wisdom I realized that it is not up in the air, like it sounds. It is common sense. I have often heard people speak words of discouragement like, ‘you cannot do this or you cannot do what I have done’. What good is it to gain all the knowledge but fail to encourage an individual? What’s the harm in encouraging someone? What is the surety that the other person cannot be better? Why can’t a champion tell his successor that he can be better than him? This is where wisdom comes into play. Maradona, the greatest footballer ever, is a fan of a 21 year old footballer Lionel Messi. Maradona says that Messi can be better than him. Now, this is words of wisdom. By saying this he does not lose his greatness, does he? You cannot imagine how much you give to the other person by such simple ‘words of wisdom’.
When I was in 9th standard, I had good football skills but when the coach told me that I am too thin to play, I gave up playing. For two years I didn’t even touch football. After I passed out of high school, I was more mature and understood that I should have taken that as a challenge, but it was already late. I missed the opportunity of playing for my school. There are only few people who take it up as a challenge and prove the other person wrong, but what’s the point in making someone ambitious just to prove a point? The person can do much better with a positive feeling than with an ‘I-will-show-him’ attitude.
If you wish for someone to improve use ‘words of wisdom’.
“Words, when well chosen, have so great a force in them, that a description often gives us more lively ideas than the sight of things themselves.”
-Joseph Addison
