Are knowledge and wisdom the same thing? Both words are nouns. One is the application of experience using good judgement (wisdom), and the other is the gathering of experience (knowledge).

knowledge /ˈnäləj/ Noun — facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject.

wis·dom /ˈwizdəm/ Noun — the soundness of an action or decision with regard to the application of experience, knowledge, and good judgment.

I find it fascinating how many companies put so much stock on hiring people with knowledge, instead of people with the experience of knowing how to apply knowledge with sound judgement.

“Wisdom is the practical application of emotional intelligence.”

Knowledge and wisdom empower leaders to be beacons of human dignity among all those they influence.

If you want to be a successful leader, you have to be knowledgeable and savvy, but also invest in yourself by undertaking a system of wisdom. Some call this spirituality, others call it self-realization, the bottom line is that if you are not actively attached to a system that is focused on your higher self-realization, you are doing yourself and all those who count on you an injustice.

Whatever system works for you, take advantage of it fully, but be careful that it does not become dogmatic. When the system of wisdom of your choice becomes dogmatic, meaning that you feel compelled to follow it out of fear, or blind conviction — you’ve allowed irrationality to enter your mind, and such causes corrosion of the key ingredient to practical wisdom, self-honesty.

“Mastering the skills of leadership requires that one begin with self-honesty. A leader who exercises self-honesty, acquires knowledge, seeks to understand his/her motivations, and is committed to self-mastery.”

Having a system of self-realization for yourself, is more important that any educational investment you can make. Becoming a wise leader is about becoming inner self-directed. Someone who is a source of positive attributes that contribute to the betterment of humanity.

Wise leaders acknowledge that they aren’t perfect. No one is, as discussed in my last blog about needing more acceptance in the world.

“Being wise is knowing that every day is an opportunity to learn, to explore, and to discover more about your own motivations and desires and observing your behavior with others.”

Being wise requires taking stock of your relationships on a daily basis. An effective practice for checking in with yourself is to analyze your day’s activities related to other people.

You can start by asking yourself some basic questions at the end of each day:

Did I snap at anyone today?

a. See if you can identify what the cause of the lack of patience was. In most cases it had nothing to do with the other person.

b. Did you experience some kind of pain, or did a wound resurface that made you uncomfortable?

Did I seek opportunities to build relationships up, or did I seek to be right and win for myself?

a. See if you felt insecure about something you are struggling with that made you defensive.

b. Did you find yourself needing to be in control, instead of embracing being genuine and vulnerable?

Did I repeat patterns of behaviors that don’t represent who I really want to be?

a. See if you are being too hard on yourself expecting too much, or worse expecting perfection.

b. Did you make some improvements you can build on? Can you accept yourself as good enough?

Do I need to forgive anyone, including myself?

a. This is an opportunity to let go of making someone God over you — forgiveness is about releasing someone’s power over you.

b. Do you regularly forgive yourself? If not, what’s stopping you from doing so?

Daily self-reflections like this can open you up to gain deeper more meaningful insights into your motivations and develop a stronger connection to your inner self.

“Wisdom lives within our consciousness, it’s not about smarts, it’s about self-honesty, and self-awareness.”

The Four Stages of Wisdom

There are four stages to developing deeper levels of wisdom, or we could simply refer to it as four stages to growing emotional intelligence.

Stage one is about the awakening of the self. This is usually preceded by a period of discontent. Usually a single and abrupt experience. It is sudden, intense, like surviving an accident, and can also be joyous like the birth of a child.

Something happens that shakes you to the core enough to cause what feels like the beginning of an awakening. You begin to question everything about your life in this stage.

If you look back at your life, chances are you’ve experienced this already. Maybe unaware of it, or blind to the gift it was at the time, till years later when you find yourself reflecting on the blessing in disguise it was.

Stage two is about the purification of the self. This is the moment, or series of moments when we come to the conclusion that “something has to change.” What follows is self-simplification and self-knowledge.

In this stage we get to that self-honest place of “let’s cut the crap and get to the facts of what I need to do” with ourselves. This stage is filled with contemplation, and feelings of not knowing what to do.

This stage can be referred to as the grey area stage of developing wisdom. You need to be a like a magician and practice being open minded and patient, because what will emerge during this stage, in terms of insights and wisdom you can apply to your life in this stage, can literally be life altering.

Stage three is about the illumination of the self. This is that moment we come to grip with and awaken to conscious reality. We accept things as they are, not as we would like to imagine them to be.

This is the moment we stop living in the aspirational truth. This is the moment of true self-honesty where we being to benefit from the insights and a certainty about life. This is the moment of detachment from our chief entanglements. This is the moment we can begin to reorient life with a new and solid certitude.

This is the stage where we set new standards of conduct and thought for our lives. We do a lot of introspection and turning inward deliberately to discern reality during this stage of wisdom development.

Stage four is when we reach unitive life, or union. This is that moment when we know we have reached a profound change in personality. Sages describe this stage as “The Spiritual Marriage”.

It’s at this stage you become your own authority and master. You are no longer divided but are at-one-with yourself.

This is also the stage when you begin to feel compelled to make a difference in the world. You no longer have a desire to sit it out, instead you actively participate in shaping and co-creating reality.

“Developing wisdom is about becoming one with your mind, body, and spirit.”

As we become more complete, more unified within ourselves, an amazing gift is bestowed to us. The gift of discernment, the gift of seeing the truth all around us.

In developing wisdom, we become a source of truth and honesty in the world, and a beacon of Light that guides not only our own way, but the way of everyone we come in contact with.

We need more wisdom in the world, so that we may shine more Light and bring about positive change for the betterment of humanity.

With more liberty also comes more conflict. We live in a time when it’s easy to focus on the scandals, the left-side issues, and the right-side arguments, and even easier to take sides.

People are cutting off friends and blocking each other on social networks. Cursing each other out and judging each other constantly. Self-righteousness has become the norm.

If we pause for a second, and reflect on what’s going on behind the scenes, look for the cause, it’s all happening for good reasons.

For thousands of years, we as people have had to comply within a command-and-control paradigm, with a way of living that was essentially forced on us.

Those who challenged authorities were put to death. Today, we freely express our opinions and as a result there is more conflict.

“With freedom comes more reason to develop the ability to listen, see the reason behind the things being said, and show human dignity to one another by practicing acceptance.”

No one is perfect. People opt into all kinds of behaviors to compensate for pain they may not be ready to face head on. Be it something that happened as a child like the loss of a parent, or being bullied, or several things that would cause early life wounds to surface as adults.

Those behaviors can be the cause of judgment, ridicule, and sometimes the cause of hurt for other people.

The reason for practicing more acceptance is because every one of us has done something in our lifetime, that we may not be proud of, or behaved in such a way that wasn’t aligned with who we might be today.

Sometimes we just screw up.

Screwing up doesn’t mean that anyone has the right to give us a life sentences as a screw up.

“Just because we screw up, doesn’t mean we are screwed up.”

We Are Growing

Life is a mix of growth and learning, and every one of us grows at a different pace. Some people when they were younger may have struggled with drugs, sex, alcohol, anger, and other behavior that didn’t help them show up their best, all the time.

Some of these people, have since become civic leaders, spiritual gurus, great mentors, parents, grand-parents, and decent human beings.

Some of these peoples may have even lived duplicitous lives for years, till they came to grip with the underlying cause of their behavior.

Some of these people may have needed many decades to develop enough self-love to let go of behaviors that were nothing more than bandages to the deep wounds they may have had to heal.

Some may still be struggling with aspects of themselves that have proven very difficult to overcome and let go. That doesn’t make them bad people. Just humans trying to cope with the storms of life.

I talk about some of my own character flaws in my new book “Emotionally Aware Leadership”. It took me decades to get to the root cause of many of my not-so-great behaviors, which impacted my relationships with the people I love, and even my career.

The root cause of all our self-inflicted problems is low self-worth. This is a main theme in my upcoming book, along with 11 other principles to become an authentic leader.

The point is, every one of us has had to overcome something, or may still be in the process of doing so.

Yet, when a person’s behavior has an impact on us personally, perhaps someone rubs our ego the wrong way, there might be an inclination to instantly write them off as a bad person, as if we are holy and righteous, and they are not.

“We need to give each other a break as people, and practice unlimited forgiveness.”

What helped me to forgive more, was the realization that every time I judged someone, or held on to ill feelings towards someone, I was giving away my power to them.

I was literally making them a god over me. The moment I realized that I set myself free and began to practice acceptance.

I heard one of my mentors say that the way out of the proverbial hell in life… is on the other side of it. The door is just past the point of no return… only those trusting that the door is within reach, can walk through fire and gain control over everything.

I asked myself many times, what does that mean exactly?

“It’s impossible to accept others as evolving human beings who are not perfect, when we don’t first accept our own imperfect human condition.”

Think about that for a moment. Why do certain traits about others bother you? Because they remind you of traits about you that you don’t accept, especially those you might not even be aware of. How can you accept other people’s negative traits if you don’t accept yourself completely first?

Two Realms of Reality

Ever noticed how two people living in the same neighborhood, with similar surroundings, similar socio-economic status, may experience the world around them completely different from each other?

That’s because there are two realms of reality. The two primary causes of either a blissful life, or a chaotic one. For the sake of simplicity let’s talk about the realm of judgement, and the realm of love.

Right or wrong exists within the realm of judgment, also known as the realm of darkness. While we think we are exercising free-will when we are making right or wrong choices, we are not… we are robotic within the realm of judgment.

“There is no such thing as right or wrong, there are only life lessons, consequences, and opportunities for personal growth.”

Love on the other hand is the realm of acceptance and forgiveness. Love is the realm of lightness. Our true free-will is only exercised when we choose love over judgment.

Those are the only two choices we have which impact how we interpret everything happening in our respective lives.

Our thoughts and actions generate energy; this energy multiplies and creates a frequency. The more we generate the energy of compassion, love, acceptance, the more the frequency will get amplified worldwide for others to do the same.

The more we continue to be self-righteous, judgmental, unwilling to accept differences when people are simply practicing their liberties, the more chaos will continue to multiple.

Quantum Consciousness

In quantum science, every dimension reflects the other. When you change just one resonance, it also reflects onto the others. The saying: It only takes one person to change the world — is true.

You and I are one element of these dimensions, but unlike inanimate objects we have something unique — consciousness.

Consciousness controls every dimension, so when we shift our consciousness towards more acceptance we begin to contribute to a more accepting, loving, and compassionate reality for everyone.

There is a constant energy of expansion that takes our consciousness and multiplies it, constantly expanding and lacking nothing.

When the collective of humanity reaches this understanding, we will begin to act accordingly towards one another; we will begin to seek to collaborate with each other.

“We need to give each other a break and seek to understand each other, seek to accept our differences and imperfections, and choose love over judgment.”

Life as an imperfect human being is an evolution of learning and growing. It’s a team sport that requires being willing to get dirty. Love and acceptance set us all free; judgements and self-righteousness only serve to ensnare us. Choose wisely friends.

I often think about what is needing to address many of the issues we face as a society being multi-dimensional. There are many social movements in place. They are all very good and needed initiatives.

However, a lot of the ways many are addressing various societal problems are single-dimensional and are not dealing with the root cause of the problems.

Gender gaps, inclusion, diversity, equal pay, affirmative action, black lives matter, metoo, etc. are all very important issues that need awareness, and action — however they are the outcomes of something rooted deeply in something bigger.

“The root cause of all our problems is lack of human dignity.”

I am passionate about bringing the Radical movement to the world. To me Radicals is about the need to get to the root of not just our work problems in society, but how we relate to ourselves and each other as human beings.

While in Russia, speaking at one of the top 5 universities, a young man, made a comment during the Q&A session following my Radical Cultures presentation.

He said: “What you want to do is change the world — you are getting to the culture, how people live, and how societies and countries are operating. It’s a huge endeavor”.

I replied: “Yes, it is a mission to change the world for the better, but we are focused on one person at a time. Just one of you here in Siberia Russia can take these principles to heart, start a company, or become a leader in one, begin to apply these principles, and the change begins. Someone leaves your company, and brings the principles along to another company, and before you know it society has changed.” I continued by saying: “The change starts with you embodying human dignity in how you hold yourself as worthy and extend the same to others.”

The even deeper root cause of all of our problems that are under the umbrella of “lack of human dignity”, is lack of self-worth. Lack of self-worth is a worldwide epidemic, a virus infecting all of humanity. It needs to be healed and that starts with the self.

The trunk to everything that can be good in the world is human dignity, and the branches of the tree extends to work, school, family, community, society, and ultimately the world. The roots of the trunk need to be deep in a high self-worth foundation.

Being a Radical is about having a multi-dimensional positive impact on all our lives, by highlighting and having the courage to talk about ourselves, in an authentic, raw, and unapologetic way.

We humans carry so much shame from choices we may have made in our lives, related to relationships, work and career, education, choices in entertainment, because of a narrative that has not served humanity. 

We are not meant to be perfect; we are meant to be on an ongoing journey of self-discovery and learning. We need to start giving each other a break by not demonizing being human who screw up — often.

You can’t offer up to solve the problems of the world, without solving the source of the problems. Society is a reflection, a mirror of who we are inside.

“The violence in the world is nothing more than a resonance of the violence within us.”

The violence begins when we are at odds with our desires, and our actions. The violence begins within us when we have difficulty being kind to ourselves and demand perfection. All conflicts within ourselves, amplify into chaos worldwide.

This isn’t some new age spiritual awakening; this is proven quantum science. You want to change the world? Start with the human in the mirror.

Acceptance

You can only extend to others what you value within yourself. If you embrace yourself even when you are out of sorts, you’ll extend the same courtesy to others when they are in the same mode of being.

Conversely, when you accept yourself as a gift in the world, you will recognize the same gift in others.

“Whatever is external of you is a mirror of who you are within.”

It’s important to not avoid or mask our darkness. We need to learn to be ok with going deeper into the darkness to discover the source of it. We need to stop beating or judging ourselves up for having darkness. You may have been chosen to play out the darkness so you could overcome it and create the frequency for others to tap into, in order to break free. Everything has a purpose, if we stay open to learning, instead of judging.

“The way out of hell in life, is on the other side of it. The door is just past the point of no return, only those trusting that the door is within reach, can walk through fire and gain control over everything.”

There are two ways to overcome challenges in life.

1) You work really hard to transform yourself, and to overcome the “not so good” traits; most of us end up simply suppressing who we are, but few do actually transform “some” aspects of themselves.

2) You accept yourself as you are, and you focus on becoming a being who bestows goodness in the world.

The first route will have you chasing your tail for years, and has been the cause of depression, anger, resentment and all the chaos in the world for thousands of years.

All the chaos in the world stems from lack of self-respect, self-love, self-dignity, self-honor, and lack of self-acceptance.

“It’s impossible to accept others as they are when we still have things we don’t accept about ourselves.”

Think about that for a moment. Why do certain traits about others bother you? Because they remind you of traits about you that you don’t want to accept. How can you accept other people’s traits if you don’t accept yourself completely?

“When you accept yourself for all of who you are, you can do the same for others, and you begin to experience life’s beauty in the imperfection.”

Something amazing happens as you remove judgment from yourself, which causes internal violence, you remove it from the world. As judgment diminishes, so does chaos. Chaos is energized by judgment. Judgment powers up chaos, remove the judgment and chaos will cease to have any source of energy.

As an alternative to judgment you can try acceptance, acceptance shifts you into state of being where bliss is the normal mode of existence.

“Acceptance is being present without judgment.”

Love Yourself

A good way to practice human dignity is with yourself. Give yourself a hug and say: “I am great just as I am, and I love me just as I am. I extend the same to everyone around me, and allow them to accept me as I am. I can now focus my energy on emanating the love I have for myself to the entire world and allow the world to do the same in return”.

Most of the chaos that exists is due to hatred for no reason, but it all starts within. Why does judgment exist? Because of lack of self-love, and self-worth.

“If we loved ourselves enough, just as we are, we would extend the same to the outside world and in turn activate the energy of mercy and love which knows no chaos.”

For millenniums we’ve been chasing our tails, going in circle feeling bad about our “character flaws”, which in some ways has kept us from achieving our greatest potential as humanity. Our lack of dignity towards one another is only a reflection of our own lack of self-acceptance and self-worth.

It’s important to get in touch with our own inner ugliness. This is very important, but for no other reason than to recognize it, accept it, and find love for ourselves anyway. The less life we give judgements, the more they will dissipate within, and all over the world.

We often think free-will is about our ability to choose right from wrong. The natural order of things is bliss, order, harmony… that is the normal state of existence.

So why do we not experience it all the time?

“How we choose to perceive ourselves, is how we experience the entire Universe.”

The only free-will we have, is to choose to either accept everything with love or with judgment. Love allows us to come to peace with ourselves and extend the same to others.

Human dignity is rooted in self-love, and high self-worth. What the world needs is more human dignity, and that starts with each and everyone one of us doing our part in loving and fully accepting the human in the mirror.