WELCOME TO SADEDIJI2GIS

10 Ways to be Wise Beyond Your
Years
Years don’t
make you wise.
Wisdom has
nothing to do
with how much
time has past
and everything
to do with how much intelligent reflection
you did during that time.
In the words of the wise philosopher, Indiana
Jones, “It’s not the years – it’s the
mileage.”
LESSON LEARNED : If you want to be wise
beyond your years, you need a game plan.
Try this:
1. Get direct experience any way you can.
Wisdom comes from doing. Not from
reading books. Or attending seminars. Or
listening to audio programs in your car on
the commute to work.
Those things might make you smart – but
not wise.
You need to run the gauntlet of genuine
experience. You need to make mistakes. To
travel outside of your comfort zone. To get
lost in foreign countries.
Maybe break a few hearts. And definitely
have your own heart broken too. That’ll
learn ya real good. Do you need to read
more books about other people’s adventures
– or go have an adventure yourself that’s
worth sharing?
2. Speed up your unlearning curve. Learning
is for monkeys and kindergartners. If you
want to become wise beyond your years, try
forgetting a few things for once.
Just beware: Unlearning is a painful process
for most people.
Fist, because it requires mental flexibility in
an age of terminal certainty. Secondly,
because it threatens your ego’s power.
Third, because cognitive dissonance is a
brutal force. And finally, unlearning is
painful because it activates the change
process. And last time I checked, most
people still hate change.
If you want to become wise beyond your
years, consider unlearning the following
things: Dangerous prejudices, outdated
desires, false interpretations, inherited
biases, outworn assumptions, previous
definitions, useless fears and stale scripts.
Remember: Any idiot can be smart. It takes
a real genius to unlearn. What mental
constructs do you need to let go of?
3. Walk the wise – then record the
footprints. Hanging out with a bunch of
wise people won’t make you wise. Unlike
poison ivy, wisdom isn’t something that just
rubs off because of proximity.
The secret is to ask questions, listen closely
to people’s answers, document your
learnings and ultimately decide for yourself
what you believe to be real and true.
Otherwise you’re just an advice leech. And
the wisdom handed down to you will fall on
deaf ears, shut eyes and a blocked heart.
How many mentors do you have?
4. Take advantage of unlimited and instant
access. Contrary to popular belief, the
Internet does serve a purpose besides
pornography and online gambling. I’m
talking about the democratization of
information.
The fact that you can find things out that
there’s no possible way you could have
known at your age is a beautiful thing.
Imagine: Past generations actually had to
wait around until they experienced things to
learn them.
Ha! You can speed up your learning curve
dramatically simply by becoming an avid
researcher. And although nothing can
replace direct, real experience, the web is a
nice placeholder.
My only caveat is to triangulate your
research. To validate every fact from three
credible sources. This helps protect yourself
from the worst part about the Internet:
Everybody has a voice. And some of those
voices smell like farts.
Be careful who you listen to. What have you
researched this week?
5. Intentionally put yourself in situations
that force you to grow up quickly. My
cousin Justin interned as the village doctor
in Honduras during his second year at
medical school. My friend Rory spent four
summers selling textbooks door to door.
My pal Anthony moved to Tokyo without
knowing a single word of Japanese. My
mate Joey took the hardest, lowest paying
job at his father’s plumbing company.
And me? I moved across the country to
Portland because I’d never been there, didn’t
know anybody and didn’t have a job.
Notice the commonality? All of these
situations were intentional, risk-laden, out of
our comfort zones and chock-full of
opportunities to depend on our own
resources to survive.
Nothing will dispense wisdom quicker. How
much longer can you realistically suffer from
Peter Pan Syndrome?
6. Be the world’s expert on yourself. In The
Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu wrote, “He who
knows other is smart – but he who knows
himself is wise.”
What about you? Which do you focus on?
Memorizing the names of Brad and
Angelina’s fourteen Cambodian children or
knowing what makes your heart sing?
If you want to be remembered as being wise
beyond your years, claim expertise on one
domain: Yourself. Otherwise your vast
knowledge of everybody else’s business is
nothing but empty calories.
Like the song Wasting Time by Jack
Johnson:
“Nobody knows anything about themselves
because they’re all worried about everybody
else.”
Don’t be that guy. No matter how tempting
the gossip trap looks. Instead, focus on
knowing yourself inside out. The people who
matter will notice. Do you need a copy of US
Weekly or a blank journal?
7. Use your past to see their present. A
great mark of wisdom well internalized is
the ability to see the old version of yourself
in the people around you.
But not with a judgmental posture. Rather,
with a calm and curious intrigue, reminding
yourself of how far you’ve come.
For example, when I sit next to people on
airplanes whose actions are hurried, violent,
stressed, frustrated and oxygen-deficient, it
always makes me smile. I think to myself,
“Wow, that used to be me. But I’m so over
that now.”
Again, this isn’t said with arrogance or
smugness; rather, with celebration and
recognition of wisdom you didn’t recognize
until you encounter a person who practiced
the opposite. What's your past worth?
8. Start teaching earlier. Stop waiting for
permission to be a teacher. You don’t need
grey hair. You don’t need a degree. You
don’t need a chalkboard. And you don’t
need a tweed blazer with patches on the
elbows.
A teacher is someone who knows the way,
goes the way and shows the way. A teacher
is someone who has the willingness and
ability to share what he’s learned from what
he’s done.
What’s more, teaching is an attractive role.
It means authority, it commands credibility
and it indicates expertise. The challenge is
finding your classroom.
Fortunately, the meaning of the word
“classroom” word has evolved in the past
few decades. Especially with the advent of
numerous online portals, you now have
thousands of potential classrooms at your
fingertips, both online and offline.
For example, your classroom might be lunch
with your friends. It might be the break room
at work. Or it might be the dinner table with
your children. Online, your classroom might
be on your blog. It might be your Facebook
page. Or it might be your monthly
teleseminar or webinar series.
The bottom line is: There’s no better way to
learn something than to teach it to someone
else. Do that every day and your wisdom
factor will skyrocket. What lesson plan are
you preparing this week?
9. Learn to trust your voice. I recently did a
five-hour video shoot with my client, The
Australian Institute of Management. During
our lunch break, my cameraman, Derrick,
made an interesting comment:
“On-camera work is a completely different
animal than public speaking. You have to be
quick on your feet and good off the cuff. The
problem is, most people don’t have the
confidence that when they open their mouth,
something good will come out.”
What about you? Do you trust your voice? If
not, consider these suggestions for doing so.
First, write every day. Doesn’t have to be
much. Fifteen minutes is enough. You’ll
discover two things: Writing is the great
clarifier; and writing it makes everything you
do easier and better – including trusting
your voice in person.
Second, practice. Debate yourself. Grill
yourself. Challenge yourself. Anything to
acclimate yourself to articulating your
thoughts clearly and quickly.
Ultimately, trusting your voice takes time,
patience and practice. And here’s the best
part: One day, two years from now, in the
middle of a conversation with your boss,
you’ll pull a one-liner out of your ass that’s
so incredibly lucid and insightful, he’ll
wonder if you accidentally slept on a
dictionary.
You’ll give new meaning to the term “wise
ass.” Are you prepared to sign your name
under your voice and let the whole world
know how you feel?
10. Establish your learning plan. I can’t tell
you how to do this. It all depends on how
you think, how you learn, what you need
learn and why you want to learn it.
Instead, here’s a snapshot of my own
learning plan to inspire your to do the same.
Reading: Five books a week.
Journaling : Thirty minutes, three pages, first
thing every morning.
Writing : Four to seven hours a day.
Mentors : Fifteen people I regular converse
with in person or virtually.
Mastermind: Three that I meet with
throughout the year.
Speaking : Ten hours of preparation for each
presentation.
Education: Three to five seminars a year.
Miscellaneous : Daily observation, note
taking, question asking and research.
Now, that’s not the whole enchilada, but you
get the point. And while I don’t expect you
to copy or even emulate my learning plan, I
do challenge to think about – and physically
write out – your own.
Commit to doing that, and your wisdom will
make your years look like days. What did
you learn yesterday?
ONE MORE THING: Growing up doesn’t
mean growing old.
That’s the only caveat: To make sure that
your pursuit of wisdom doesn’t eclipse your
practice of childlikeness.
Because the last thing you want is to
position yourself as the precocious young
genius that doesn’t know how to have any
fun. Be sure to keep your inner child in
check. Otherwise all the wisdom in the world
won’t do you much good. You'll end up like
one of those annoying, hyper-articulate child
actors that people are tired of by the time
they're twelve. (I'm looking at you, Haley
Joel Osment.)
REMEMBER : Being wise beyond your years
isn’t about the years themselves; it’s about
what happened during those years, and how
you reflect upon that.