5 – Wisdom vs. Power: Wisdom Paradigm Part 3

Wisdom Paradigm Part 3
Welcome back to our third and last session talking about the Wisdom Paradigm. The better you know the Wisdom Paradigm, the more successful you can be in all aspects of your life—at work, at home and with your family.

For thousands of years, the Wisdom Paradigm had us on the right track developing towards goodness and Happiness—until we took a wrong turn a few centuries ago into the Modern Paradigm. We’ll talk about that wrong turn, what happened and the Modern Paradigm in our next podcast.

Here’s a little review of the Wisdom Paradigm so far.

The Wisdom Paradigm teaches us that times and cultures and technology change, but human nature doesn’t change. Human nature has been the same throughout history and will remain the same in the future. Our DNA is what makes us a homo sapiens. Our human nature is what makes us human.

We all have the same purpose, the same destination in life—Happiness. Happiness comes from good relationships.

If you want to be happy in life, become a good person who develops good relationships.

There is an objective morality with moral facts—like it’s a fact that the Holocaust and slavery are wrong. It’s also a fact that if you practice virtues like honesty, justice, wisdom and love, you’ll become a good person with good relationships who achieves Happiness.

All human beings are social beings who thrive in relationships. We are at our best in Wisdom covenant relationships where the good of the individual and the good of the team are the same. The more you put into the team, the more you grow your skills, character, teamwork and leadership. The more the team invests in its people, the better the team gets.

Covenant relationships are the highest trust, highest stability and highest performance relationships.

Wisdom is knowledge plus character. The more you know about the Truth and the better you live that Truth—your character—the more wisdom you will develop in life. Wisdom is really knowledge about life itself.

So, life itself is pretty straightforward. Become a good person who has good relationships and you’ll be happy in life. It’s that simple.

Why are we so burned out in our society today? Why are we unhappy and anxious? Why have the depression and suicide rates skyrocketed—especially for young people?

Because we lost our focus on good relationships and Happiness, and got distracted chasing things like money, fame, social media, status, technology, immortality and technology.

Anything that distracts us from the fundamental Truth of good relationships is going to eventually lead to unhappiness, anxiety, depression and other bad outcomes.

With these lessons in mind, let’s jump into our last blog learning the basics of the Wisdom Paradigm.
WORK
Fisher, smith, shoemaker, miller, weaver, mason, carpenter…  What are these?

In the Wisdom Paradigm, and in earlier times, if your name was Smith, you were probably the blacksmith in town. If your name was Weaver, it was probably because your family wove fabric. Miller was the man who milled the grain into flour. You can probably figure out Fisher, Shoemaker, Mason and Carpenter on your own.

Smith was not a job, not something that you did just for money. It was more of a vocation, a calling, a fundamental part of who you were. Smith was a fundamental part of your identity. As the smith, your work represented you personally. Your work was your reputation, your identity, who you were.

As the weaver, the quality and finish of your fabric reflected you directly. Your work contained, expressed and embodied you. Your work was you and you were your work.

In contrast, today, work is a job. A job is about earning money, making a living, so you can eventually retire and do the things you find fulfilling. We don’t think of work and fulfillment as going hand in hand. We’re often told that we’re not supposed to find our work fulfilling.

Today we divide everything into our professional-work life a...