Greg Proffit Writing

Tag: wisdom

The Wise Use The Best Means—Even If It’s A Long, Strange Trip Getting There

Photo by David Iskander on Unsplash

Picking right up where we left off in the preceding companion piece in which you drank coffee and chose the ultimate end for your life, we proceed to the second of wisdom’s applications. Wisdom chooses the best end, then uses the best means to achieve it. So, the wise use the best means.

I didn’t learn about the application of means and ends to my life until after I’d already confused them royally. At 17, I entered college as a freshman. I chose the college I attended because I loved the basketball team. Seriously. What was not to love? Michael Jordan had just helped the team win a national championship. Is there any better criterion for choosing a university?

So, at 17 I arrived on campus with a cooler, a stereo with huge speakers, a bong, and some albums. My pre-med roommate said he’d never seen a freshman so outfitted. I probably took his meaning the wrong way… it made me proud.

I had not just arrived on campus, by God, I had arrived in LIFE! And I was at the summit! King of my Universe! And let me tell you, as king, I had a helluva lot of fun. All my gear was put to incessant use.

2 Years Later

It took two years to realize I had selected the wrong end.

As much as I loved cheering MJ’s exploits as a man among boys at Carmichael Auditorium (this was pre-Dean E. Smith Center, mind you), the lifestyle was unsustainable. The classes were dull. My other roommate spent two hours a night on a single accounting problem. I knew that wasn’t for me. I had no conception of why I was there once basketball season ended. The football team was mediocre even then.

The wise use the best means, and I was as far from wise as I was from equalling Jordan’s skills as a basketball player. I didn’t know what means even were.

A Long, Strange Trip

So I left college with questions about life college couldn’t answer. I went on the road to follow around the Grateful Dead instead. Hey now, don’t laugh! There are worse means to use exploring the meaning of life and consciousness than Dead shows.

Anyway, after a long, strange trip, I now know what ends and means are all about. I know that college is a means to an end, not the end. And I know a job is a means to an end, not the end. Likewise, money, most learning, etc.

Once you’ve chosen wisely and selected your life mission, your ultimate end, you’ll need to determine what it will take to achieve it. What path will bring you there? What metaphorical mode of transportation?

Remember, it is not enough to casually try out the best means. You must use them diligently. Along with diligence is patience, teachability, and flexibility. The best ends take time. It takes a lot of time to figure out what value is. Then more time to know what is valuable enough to make it your life’s pursuit. Still more to adopt the best means and stick with the program.

But if it is truly valuable enough, a wise choice, and therefore worthy of the effort, don’t make the effort by all means—make it by the best means. That’s what the wise do.

July 9, 2021
Wisdom Is The Choice of The Best End and The Best Means for Achieving It…to be continued

Antigua, Mamora Bay Sunset (Photo by Author)

# 78 on my 99 Life Tips–A List is: Wisdom is also the application of the best means for the most valuable ends. See # 77 above for initial thoughts regarding wisdom.

In keeping with the string of tips and stories about intelligence, truth, and wisdom, this is the reader’s digest summation. Wisdom chooses the best end, then achieves it by the best methods.

Easier said than done.

Getting lost in the weeds of esoteric ideas is no benefit if you want to be wise (and who doesn’t want to be?). Simple answers and concepts are the most helpful to get you and keep you on track.

The Best End

You may wish to grab a Venti-sized latté while you ponder what this means to you. It will take a while.

What is the mainspring of your life? What is your ultimate reason, purpose, goal? Why do you do what you do? What is it you’re hoping for?

The ultimate end of a person’s life dictates their life, morality, their praiseworthiness or guilt. It is the motive behind every decision. It is the mission statement, even if unspoken, deeply buried in the unconscious.

Wisdom is the choice of the best (most valuable) end.

Which is what exactly? What is the correct answer?

America’s founding documents declare it to be, “the pursuit of happiness”—but is the pursuit, or the happiness—the end?

If happiness; is that the most valuable end? Is your happiness more valuable than mine? It may be to you, but when weighed on a universal scale? Are they not equal?

And if that has you scratching your head, assuming a belief in God, is your happiness more valuable than God’s? And are you more deserving of happiness than God is?

That will keep the mental wheels spinning a while.

Lest we digress too much, a repetition is in order. Wisdom is the choice of the best end.

Oh, that’s easy, you say. Lots of money is the best, most valuable end. But is it? Is money more valuable than time? What is an extra hour at the end of your life going for on the open market nowadays? A day? A year? Pretty pricey if you can find a vendor.

Well, ok then, time is more valuable, you agree. But is time more valuable than health, or peace of mind? Would any reader wish to live for eternity with a tormented mind? Or with a debilitating illness?

No? Didn’t think so.

This explains why philosopher types are so vilified. So damn many questions!

Still, you must choose a worthy end of your own if you hope to be wise. Your choice of end shows your wisdom—or lack thereof. A hint: You’ve already chosen an end regardless of whether you know what it is. We all have. But you can move off the default choice, which is to live entirely with regard for your own momentary pleasures as fully as possible, to some more valuable and well-considered purpose.

The Best Way To Get There

This is going to have to wait for another treatment of its own. You’ve got plenty to work on.

July 9, 2021
3 “A’s” and The Essence of Wisdom; or, The Truth About Chairs

Photo by Tim Umphreys on Unsplash

# 77 on my 99 Life Tips–A List is: When you discover Truth, accept it, adopt it, and act on it. This is the essence of wisdom.

In a previous story, I’ve written about using your intelligence to pursue truth.

But what will you do if you catch it?

Will you be like the chihuahua who chases the bus down the street?

I mean, what would it do if it ever caught the bus?

But you’re no chihuahua, when you discover truth, you will:

Accept

Truth is floating all around you right now. It is everywhere. It permeates creation and saturates reality. The existence of lies has no more impact on the existence of truth than darkness does on light.

But truth will not dispel darkness unless you accept it as truth.

Remarkably, the mind is so made up that acceptance of truth as true flips a switch that settles the question. It will remain so until it discovers fresh evidence, more true.

Acceptance of what is true also implies acceptance of what is false. Sometimes, this is difficult. Pet beliefs may fall by the wayside. Dogmas may crumble. Sparkling fantastical claims lose their luster, dull, and drop away.

Admittedly, this can be painful. All learning changes you. The old dies a little death. A new, truer self steps to the fore. This is nothing to be afraid of, but one must remain vigilantly prepared, because this happens when you discover new truth and accept it.

Adopt

The next step is adoption. Truth accepted is not enough to elicit the full benefit. Make the truth your own. Make it your truth. Do so knowing that you are malleable and open to the possibility that new, more full, more complete truth may appear.

But for the time being, think of the difference between acceptance and adoption as that between one who acknowledges the existence of a child and one who assumes responsibility for the child to raise as their own.

Act

In my wanderings I may see a chair. My senses encourage me to accept that it is indeed a chair, and in fact, a very good one. Pleased with my discovery, I take it home, adopting it as mine.

The proof of whether my acceptance and adoption of the chair has any depth is whether I sit on it. Do I use it for the end to which it was designed and for which I accepted it, adopted it and carted it home?

Regarding practical value, truth unenacted is no better than a lie. Just as an unused chair may become merely an object upon which to bang one’s toe in the night.

The Takeaway… There is no 4th “A”

A person is wise in proportion to the truth accepted, adopted, and acted upon in their life. Notice there is no 4th “A” for accumulation. Truths catalogued and shelved, but not accepted, adopted, nor acted upon do not make one wise; They make one guilty.

July 8, 2021
Don’t Speculate—Just Admit You Don’t Know

Photo by Chris Ainsworth on Unsplash

# 64 on my, 99 Life Tips–A List is: The wise know that they do not know, are not afraid to admit that they do not know, are wiser for this, and remain undeterred in the effort to know.

I would reduce this tip to Don’t Speculate!… but the meaning is not exactly the same. Socrates is famous for being wise. Just as famously he did not boast of it. One of the hallmarks of the wise is their willingness to lean in to their own ignorance. The foolish and simple-minded are certain…and almost certainly wrong as a result.

When you don’t know something (which is often, right?), don’t try to fill in the gaps with guesses, wishes, and hopes. Just admit you don’t know. Speculations won’t get you any closer to factual knowledge and may lead you further astray. Just carefully approach the unknowns armed with what you do know.

Back to Socrates for a sec. The method named after him, The Socratic Method, is a question-and-answer style approach to truth detection. Philosopher types refer to this style by the fancy-schmancy name–dialectic. This technical sounding word just means questions and answers between two viewpoints. In the method, the questions are as important as the answers. The questions clarify ideas as they get more and more focused on the essential knowledge sought.

A follower of this approach learns that defining terms is important. Thus, the method seeks to categorize, catalogue and capture truth in words. This is useful, though one of my favorite words is ineffable, which means, literally, “too great or extreme to be expressed in words.”

Ineffable experiences and truths are my personal favorites, but that’s a topic for another day. Admittedly, truths that resist definition, resist dissemination as well.

For a deeper dive on the topic, written in a very approachable format, read the late Robert Pirsig’s iconic Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

Returning to the tip at hand, and especially when trying to make a decision, keep in mind what you know, what you don’t know, and what you need to know. The last is the most important point. It bears repeating. Ask yourself what you need to know in order to make the best decision.

When you’ve determined what you need to know don’t rely on your own speculations to fill in the answers. If you need to know what someone else thinks in order to make the most informed decision, ask them. Don’t just guess.

Now, to wrap this one up with a huge caveat. Lazy, uncaring, ignorance isn’t a trait you want. There is no famous philosopher named Mediocrates. There is nothing admirable about wallowing in the dark.

When in doubt, be wise–or at least act wise. Don’t speculate, just admit that you don’t know.

June 27, 2021