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3. Rational Choices
“The fools in life want things fast and easy: money, success, attention. Boredom is their great enemy and fear. Whatever they manage to get slips through their hands as fast as it comes in.”— Robert Greene, 50th Law
Upon graduating from Zurich Polytechnic in 1900, the twenty-one-year-old Albert Einstein had a narrow chance of getting a decent job. He had graduated at the bottom of his class, almost nullifying his chance to obtain a teaching position.
But despite his inability to get a job, Albert rejected a job offer to work as an engineer in his father’s dynamo business in Milan, the reason being that he would leave with no free time for his interests.
He also shut down his friend’s offer to land him a well-paid job in an insurance company — it will dull his mind and creativity.
But when a friend mentioned a job opening at a Swiss patent office in Bern about a year later, Albert leaped at the opportunity. Though the pay was small, it was everything he wanted. His job was to analyze the validity of patents, many of which involved aspects of science that interested him. This choice is why we still talk of Albert Einstein today.
Fools, as Robert Greene put it, want things fast.
It takes wisdom to be patient, to see beyond what glitters in front of you. Though not easy, wise people don’t make decisions based on what’s obvious or expected.
They do what will bring the highest benefit in the long run. You can also see this quality in great entrepreneurs like Warren Buffet, Jeff Bezos, etc. The long term rational thinking is what sets them apart.
Read: 8 Strong Signs Someone Has Quiet Confidence
4. Self-Mastery
“The growth of wisdom may be gauged exactly by the decline of ill-temper.” Frederick Nietzsche
If you observe spiritual leaders like The Dalai Lama or Sadhguru, the first and most prominent thing you’ll notice is how calm, peaceful, and joyful they are.
This isn’t because they don’t come across annoying situations. In fact, these spiritual leaders meet countless numbers of people with different kinds of personalities daily. They keep a natural state of calmness because they don’t put themselves at the mercy of anyone. In the words of Sadhguru:
“How people are is their choice. How I am is my choice. No matter what they do, no one can make me angry, happy, or unhappy. These privileges I have kept to myself. ”
Wisdom is being able to view life in a detached, humble, and calm manner so that you can respond (with clarity), not react, to whatever you are faced with. In a detached state, wise people view life with empathy.
Ill-tempered people, on the other hand, usually lack this humility and detachment. They take everything people say to them personally. It’s their ego against the world.
Whenever they don’t get the kind of treatment they think they deserve, all hell breaks loose. They oscillate between ecstasy and aggression based on the treatment of people.
True wisdom is manifest in your level of self-mastery. The wiser you are, the lesser your temper will fluctuate based on opinions and validations from others. True wisdom brings humility and understanding.
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