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Solving the “Practical Wisdom” Deficit for Chaotic Times 

1. We are in a global, permacrisis state with the temperature rising?


2. The wisdom to achieve good solutions is lacking, especially amongst too many elected officials?
    
3. Macro turbulence and anxieties ripple down to personal well-being and relationships within the family, the community, and at work?
    
4. Growing polarization is a problem within our society?

1. Contextual Judgment: Understanding the unique details of a situation to discern the right action, not just following abstract rules.
    
2. Integration of Virtues: Weaving together moral traits like courage, honesty, and compassion with rational thought.
    
3. Emotional Intelligence: Involves emotional regulation, empathy, and prosocial behavior.
    
4. Self-Reflection & Experience: Drawing on past experiences and values to inform present choices.
    
5. Action-Oriented: Focused on deliberating and acting well in the real world, rather than just contemplating.
    
6. Acceptance of Uncertainty: Recognizing that life isn't always predictable and adapting accordingly. 

1. An increasingly complex world has created problems beyond the average voter’s comprehension, so…
    
2. …Demagogues pitch, simplistic, popular ideas on both the left and right that won’t work. But, they do buy votes and win elections. In turn, fewer wise people choose to run for office on a platform of falsehoods.
    
3. Accelerating change and complexity has exacerbated the Peter Principle: “people get promoted to their level of incompetence”. High performers earn promotions until they reach a level where they can’t master the new skills required in the new post. Top management then typically allows them to stay there and hobble the organization.
    
4. Nepotism is common in family businesses and is a subset of the Peter Principle. Who is in the family, who gets to be a manager, and who owns stock are three separate issues that often get conflated dysfunctionally.
    
5. For multiple reasons, the US has continued to increase the regulations and rules for - governments, courts, healthcare, schools, businesses, construction of all kinds, etc.. If you practice PW, you will often be wisely bending the rules and risk getting busted by some compliance agent. Great teachers, by example, don’t want to teach every kid the same way to only get better test scores, but that’s the policy and the metric. So, wise people leave teaching and are replaced by less talented rule-followers who need more rules to offset their lack of common sense. We do need an optimal set of rules which can be bent for wise exceptions to the rules.   
    
6. The consolidation and financialization of the US private-sector has continued to put increasing pressure on “efficiency”. Crude incentives tied to simple, financial metrics don’t support human, qualitative needs nor do they balance short and long-term needs. The result is decreased employee engagement and innovation.   
    
7. And, what institutions are both teaching and coaching PW? PW is a fuzzy subject, because it must be applied to fuzzy challenges. K through grad schools don’t have “wisdom” curriculums. Still, the – what, why, how – of PW could be taught to boost intellectual awareness and understanding. But, growing your PWQ requires dealing with an on-going array of real-world experiences combined with self-reflection on the learning that comes more from failures than successes. And, having wise role models and mentors is a necessity for most.    

1. Wake Up. Realize that PW is the ultimate human skill that is most beneficial to you and others in the long-run. Decide to make greater PW an intentional, lifetime mastery path. Start noticing, observing and befriending wise people in your midst.
    
2. Research “wisdom”. Some suggestions
   a. Start with my blog #3.
   b. Consider reading the book “Wiser” by Jeste and taking his on-line test. (Found by googling: “Jeste-Thomas Index”)
   c. Then, apply the process of Mastery to learning specific PW soft skills.
   d. My blogs on the mastery process are: 19, 22, 18.
   e. Blogs on getting going and persisting are: 15, 25, 21, 24
   f. Because few people are capable self-achievers, make sure you enlist sufficient practice partners and mentors/coaches to help you along.
    
3. Defuse your negative emotional reactions to triggers. Wise people are calm amidst stressful situations to be more observant, compassionate, and open-minded; they have equanimity. A first sub-skill might, therefore, be to do “trigger-management” to grow equanimity which in turn allows other PW skills to grow naturally. But, to do trigger-management we must become more “mindful or self-reflective” about reading our emotions. Recognize, understand, and label them. For more on trigger work see my blogs 8 and 16.    
    
4. Once you understand the science of the “mastery process”, you can then give more thought to how you can design a plan to master a priority list of sub-skills for PW. There is a big gap between intellectually understanding why and how to do a skill and being able to do it with spontaneity and excellence. New habits take hours of deliberate practice to develop new neural circuits that enable spontaneous excellence. Defusing negative, can’t-do beliefs and emotions that freeze us is a first step, then a good mastery-path plan that includes sufficient support is next.
    
5. Once you begin working on mastering one sub-element skill of PW at a time, you will have to give thought to how you will balance and maintain your blend of both intrinsic and extrinsic motives. Intrinsic motivation comes from within; you simply love, enjoy and feel fulfilled by what you are pursuing. Extrinsic motivation comes from external factors like: praise from parents, coaches, peers; incentive rewards; avoiding punishment or negative peer judgments, etc.  Intrinsic motives are far more, long-term sustainable.
    
6. Skill-Up. Beginnings are hard, but starting by consistently practicing with patient, low-progress expectations will give way to confidence. The better we get at any skill: the more we tend to enjoy it, and the more refinements we see that are possible.
    
7. Serve the greater good. It’s surprising how quickly you can help others who are behind you on the same path. At dojos, high-yellow belts are big helpers and cheerleaders for new white belts. And, in time, your PW will start helping all who are around you. Helping others who are in turn appreciative is one of the great vicarious-joy sources in life.