Intelligence and Wisdom

Intelligence can be evaluated by well-designed exams, but wisdom is an abstract concept hard to explain. As my understanding, intelligence is the brainpower to understand specific knowledge, to learn new skills and to reason and analyze; wisdom is the insightful perception of people and the world, the willpower to handle change and stress, and the ability to make right decision at right time.

Intelligence and wisdom are codependent and intertwined. With enough intelligence, people can develop wisdom from accumulated experience; with enough wisdom, people can tap the full potential of their intelligence. Intelligence can help people to achieve highly in a particular area. Nevertheless, if you want to be successful in every realm of your life, you need wisdom to make right choice and balance your life. It is a blessing for a person to have both top intelligence and top wisdom. If I have to choose one, I think wisdom is better than intelligence.

I ever witnessed several very intelligent persons had miserable life and brought trouble to people around them. As an intelligent person has a sad ending, it looks more tragic than a brainless one does. What kind of life a person can have is determined by his attitude, philosophy and wisdom. A self-centered and narrow-minded person has trouble to understand the others’ feeling and is unable to get along well with people around him.

I was ever a self-absorbed person unable to handle stress. Under stressful situation, I couldn’t concentrate and couldn’t do anything well. When I was frustrated, my husband said to me, “Don’t worry, no one is faultless. Just use your strength more and develop your weakness.” His kind and supportive words relieved my anxiety.

When I was bothered by people’s gossips, my husband told me, “Do you know why some people are jealousy or mean? They are unhappy, unloved or insecure. Can’t you forgive them? When you forgive and let go, you will feel happy.” Therefore, I released myself from outside words.

I have a stress-free home, in which I can feast myself with good food, beautiful music, and edifying books, and I can have a comfortable beauty sleep to reenergize my body and brain cells. I think my husband is wise, He said, “Sure. At least I did a very wise thing, that is, I married you.” The ability to feel appreciation and gratitude is wisdom, too.

It is good to be intelligent; it is better to be wise. If you can not be wise enough, at least have a wise person around you who can help you build up right attitude and guide you to the right path of life.