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Considering Wisdom #53
A weekly newsletter from BobBarnardnm.com
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Please share this with your friends so we can encourage others to consider wisdom.
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Thoughts on the intersection of Society/Culture, Productivity/You, and Wisdom/Knowledge.
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Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom – and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech. Benjamin Franklin
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It has been another quiet week filled with Zoom meetings and a day-long meeting in El Paso. I am settling into a pattern of Zoom meetings, physical therapy sessions, massive amounts of emails, and some writing. I submitted my first article for publication in a magazine. We'll see if they choose to publish. My health is good if I don't overdo it and get tired. About time I learned this.
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You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks. Winston Churchill
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Winston Churchill is a favorite of mine because he put so much wisdom in so few words. But you must look below the surface to really understand.
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All of us have experienced someone telling us we can’t or shouldn’t do that. Often with the best intentions. As a parent, you don’t want your child to be hurt or disappointed if they don’t reach their goal. As a friend, you don’t want your friend to get hurt, so you may withhold information from them. All of this is the stuff that books and movies are made of. The unintended consequences of telling or not telling someone something.
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Churchill, on the other hand, makes it very clear that if we pay attention to what everyone says to us or about us, we will never reach our destination. This first struck me as a very arrogant position to take, but the truth is there. We must know what we believe and ignore the naysayers.
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Knowing what we believe and figuring out how real that belief is requires understanding ourselves. If we are clear in our values and are not driven by selfishness and greed, then we can ignore those who are trying to make us change our paths.
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We also must know why we believe. Have we done our homework and ensured that our belief is solidly founded on truth, or is it a belief that someone else has told us is true? As we look at our society today, it is difficult to think that everyone has a clear why. It is necessary for each of us to determine our own way and not let others influence us. If we do this, as Churchill says, we don’t need to throw stones at every dog that barks. We know our what and why. Our belief is grounded and solid.
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1. How often do you get derailed by someone else’s comment?
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2. How often do you change your life path because someone told you to be or do something you didn't want to do?
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1. List the times when someone says you can’t or shouldn’t do something.
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2. For each of these items in 1 above, think about why you did or didn’t listen.
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3. Think about when you were right and they were wrong and why.
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