Our individual lives being so short, it only makes sense to live every moment by doing what makes us purposeful, content, and prosperous. In an increasingly interdependent and complex world, the lack of personal and collective wisdom easily affects us. Becoming wise and using the wisdom we already have is a process that no one can do for us.

Wisdom, the quality of being wise, enables us to have better insights about things in our life and the world around us. This quality helps us to make better decisions, that are indispensable to live a meaningful life. A wise person knows when and how to make the exception to every rule; he knows how to improvise. Real-world problems are often ambiguous and ill-defined and the context is always changing. A wise person is like a jazz musician — using the notes on the page, but dancing around them, inventing combinations that are appropriate for the situation and the people at hand. A wise person knows how to use these moral skills in the service of the right aims; to serve other people, not to manipulate them. And finally, perhaps most importantly, a wise person is made, not born. Wisdom depends on experience, but not just any experience.

Wisdom is not in knowing everything, but in discerning what truly matters. Life constantly bombards us with distractions, negativity, and trivial details. A wise person learns to filter, to ignore the noise, and to focus only on what nurtures growth and peace. Not every battle deserves attention, not every opinion deserves response, and not every obstacle deserves worry. By overlooking the unnecessary, we preserve energy for what is essential. Wisdom, then, is selective vision—choosing clarity over clutter. Unnecessary burdens should be overlooked to protect peace of mind.

“To open one’s eyes can last a lifetime. Seeing is a matter of an instant,” wrote Anthony de Mello. The cultivation of wisdom is the effort to open one’s eyes. Wise people are artists of everyday life, people who have chosen the best way to relate to their reality and are able to improve it. “The art of being wise” is an invitation to increase the quality of our perception, our thoughts, our decisions and our actions. The art of being wise is knowing who to ignore, what to overlook, where to leave things, when to move on, and why it’s all necessary.

People seek out wise people when they have problems that need solving. These people become wise, not because they have a rosy and therefore deluded view of the world, but because they are driven to find real solutions to the problems. They are in the business of wisdom because they can genuinely help. When one continually looks for solutions that work, one’s thinking stays sharp, and one develops massive potential value.

Wise people are acutely aware of the distracting nature of our thoughts. They know that true insight comes when incessant personal thinking is eased to give space in the mind for true intelligence to come through. They continually practice the art of letting go of unhelpful thoughts to connect with inner wisdom. They’re not afraid to acknowledge and work with the spiritual aspect of intelligence.  Their cognitive flexibility enables them to adapt thinking and behaviour to new situations and challenges.

Wise people couple real-world activity and experience with voracious knowledge-gathering, whether from books, mentors, courses, videos or general interactions. They go deep into particular topics, and also dip into areas outside their chosen area of focus to see new connections and create interesting ‘knowledge hybrids’ that others fail to see.  They commit time daily to absorbing more information, not for the sake of it, but because it adds to their ability to contribute and find solutions.

Most people are content with the surface level. Either they don’t care enough to go deeper, they don’t want to ‘rock the boat,’ or they are simply too busy to find out. Wise people aren’t satisfied with surface details only. They follow through on their inquiries. They ask probing questions. They know that the juicy stuff lies at the heart.  The root is where truth and leverage exist. Like curious five-year-olds, wise people never stop asking: “But, why?” Without nurturing continual curiosity it’s impossible to develop a deep wisdom that sets one apart. A lot of this emerges naturally. As such, we can view curiosity as a habit that must be maintained and fed regularly.

The stereotype of a wise soul is often someone who sits around not doing much. However, the wise owl has been hunting mice and dodging foxes all day. The smartest people actively fill their lives with risk. They are not reckless, but they take calculated, bold steps at the edges of comfort. If they didn’t, they would do as most others do: stay safe and gather very little new information rooted in experience. Research suggests that wisdom doesn’t necessarily mean taking more risks, but that certain calculated risks can lead to personal growth and opportunities. When you purposefully engage with new and uncertain experiences, you build resilience and become more comfortable with the unknown over time.

Imagination and nuance and the spaces between headlines is where we live. There is hardly a wise person who doesn’t know how to find some joy even amidst what is hard, and to smile and laugh easily, including at oneself. A sense of humour is high on his list of virtues, in interplay with humility and compassion and a capacity to change when that is the right thing to do. It’s one of those virtues that softens us for all the others.

True wisdom isn’t about knowing everything, but about understanding what not to engage with. It’s the quiet skill of recognizing who to simply ignore—those voices that only bring noise or doubt, offering nothing truly constructive. It’s the grace of what to overlook—the small slights, the minor imperfections, the things that simply aren’t worth our peace. Wisdom teaches us where to leave things, understanding that some battles aren’t ours to fight, some situations are best untouched, allowing them to exist without our constant interference.

It’s the clarity of when to move on, sensing when a chapter is truly closed, when a path has reached its end, and when clinging only delays our next beginning. And at its heart, it’s knowing why it’s all necessary—that releasing, ignoring, and letting go aren’t acts of weakness, but powerful choices that protect our energy, deepen our peace, and clear the way for what truly matters in our life. And finally, as William James wisely put it, “The art of being wise is knowing what to overlook.”

Bhushan Lal Razdan, formerly of the Indian Revenue Service, retired as Director General of Income Tax (Investigation), Chandigarh.

© Greater Kashmir