On Sharpening Our Wits

Earl Nightingale asserted that all people are born in ignorance. As much as he was an august orator, even he fathomed that during his early years he was wrapped around a cloud of naivety. Subsequent to his consciousness of this unwelcoming fact, he settled for the cessation of his folly. “People reach a station of consciousness in life, where they can choose to ward off ignorance, or continue to live in it,” Earl remarked.

Whether we choose to operate in or call a halt to ignorance, it’s up to us. Nonetheless, this oeuvre is for those that are looking to sharpen their wits by doing away with ignorance, thoroughly. Life seemingly is full of checkpoints that are perpetually missed but could dramatically give discerning minds profound wisdom.

“Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life,” Marcus Aurelius.

There is an avalanche of teachings that we can get out of even just one experience in life. Just as Marcus Aurelius had said, it is some sort of super power to be able to do a full retrospect on that level. Many people claim to do retrospection but all they do is nonchalantly play around the surface of the happening. Some exertion is prerequisite to be able to look real far down into the depths of what occurs in our lives so as to ferret out what we can learn from them. An incredibly useful place to seek for knowledge is from our past experiences.

“Man never legislates, but destinies and accidents, happening in all sorts of ways, legislate in all sorts of ways,” Plato.

Many times we tend to believe that we are the masters of our own ships, until an unprecedented fortuity comes and disrupts our faulty thinking. It is at these moments we get bitter, resentful and even in extreme cases nihilistic. Such a reckless reaction is gratuitous and downright harmful for not only ourselves but also other people as well. We need to step back, then after simmering down, ask ourselves what we can take from these lamentable incidences. When we become astute students of our mishaps, our wits will grow all the more sharper.

“Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others?” Voltaire

It is uncommon for people to seriously look at the experiences of others so as to learn from them. Our young generation, for instance, revere secular musicians but do they really ask themselves what sort of things these musicians go through or where they are headed and if that’s the same destination they wish for themselves. NO, they don’t. Because they are asleep. Sleeping on the truth, on their ignorance, on their dreams and aspirations, on their own God-given talents, on their future, and it’s not okay.

For our wits to grow sharper, we ought to study our lives and the lives of the people around us. Study successful people; their successes and failures, so that you avoid the pitfalls they ran into and emulate their success. Above all, pray to God for Wisdom.