The School of Wisdom

In a recent overview post on Life School, I described the four basic fingerprint patterns—arch, tented arch, loop and whorl. Each of these patterns is associated with a particular Life School.

This week, we’ll look at the School of Wisdom. If you have at least two tented arches in your set of ten fingerprints, this is your school.

What is the curriculum?

If you are in the School of Wisdom, you are here to learn to move from thought and evaluation to action, so you can gain real, hands-on experience. This means being a participant in life, rather than just an observer. You need to be willing to make commitments, so you can ‘get off the fence’ and gain understanding through experience. Wisdom comes from experience, not from using your intelligence to insulate yourself from life.

If you are in the School of Wisdom, you can be challenged by two extremes.

On the one hand, you can be filled with doubt, always hesitating, procrastinating, and needing to ‘know more’ before taking action. You want to keep as many options open as you possibly can. Analysis paralysis is a hallmark of this end of the School of Wisdom spectrum.

At the other end is The Expert, the know-it-all who operates from a position of dogma—a ‘my way or the highway’ perspective. Do you have to be right? Always know best? Are you a perfectionist? Do you shudder at the prospect of making a mistake? These are some of the pitfalls of the ‘too much’ end of the School of Wisdom.

The School of Wisdom is designed to give you practice in seeing the big picture, taking calculated risks, committing, and gaining expertise through doing—then sharing your experience-gained wisdom with others.

How difficult is it for you to say ‘yes’ to something, knowing that means saying ‘no’ to other things? If making decisions is challenging for you, what steps can you take to help yourself move from observation to action?