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Wisdom is the soundness of act or decision based on knowledge, experience and good judgment. 

What I love about this definition is that wisdom isn't a gift that only the Dalai Lama has or old people have.  It is an act or decision which means wisdom is in the world!  Wisdom moves things forward through actions and decisions.  

The definition also gives you the quality of Wisdom.  Soundness.  Soundness means stable or solid.  You don't spin on wise decisions or actions because they are solid.  

I also love that soundness indicates, sound.  Soundness is transmitted and heard.  Wisdom transfers from one being to another.  

I was sharing this definition of Wisdom at my Machu Picchu Wisdom Council.  Explaining it as I've done in this blog post.  And then, inspired by that magical place, this sentence fell out of my mouth.

Wisdom Isn't Wisdom Until It's Shared...

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In 2018, we went to Machu Picchu, Peru for my 2018 Wisdom Council.  

Every picture you see of Machu Picchu looks like it's taken by a professional photographer.  I took this shot.  Isn't it beautiful!   Sunny day.  Clouds in unique formations.  Velvety green mountains look like moss.  The sun came out and you can see the people walking through Machu Picchu.  When you walk through, it's really quiet.  Like a cathedral.  Machu Picchu is such a mystery. It was built in the 1400's.  The Incans had no metal so they cut all the stones, by rubbing stone-to-stone.  

And they hauled stones for their structures up from way down below in the valley by the water.  Absolutely amazing that they finished this structure.  It's a mystery why they were there and a mystery why they left.  

This ancient place is sacred.  

Whenever I travelled all over...

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I raced out of my Physics class.  Professor Klontz just gave us our tests back.  As I scurried across campus to my next class, my mind raced.  

How am I going to recover my semester grade from this "D?"  

I really didn't understand much from the class.  The professor taught so fast, he could have literally taught in Greek and I would have understood just as much.  The book wasn't much help either.  I read and re-read each chapter with little comprehension.  I slowed down every study group I joined.

I'm such a doofuss!  Why can't I GET this?

And why did I schedule my next class so far away from the Physics building!!  Only 10 minutes between classes.

Stress mounts as I pick up the pace.

I get to the building.  Race upstairs to the locker room.  Change clothes and enter the classroom.

My mind still fixated on that "D."  My Chemical Engineering degree in...

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If you've followed me for awhile, you know I'm a science geek.  I LOVE to apply scientific terms like momentum, energy, power and resistance to our everyday life.  When we apply these concepts from a scientific perspective, they reveal a lot about our life experiences.

Today, I'm going to geek out on a concept you probably don't like much.

Turbulence

For 30 years, I traveled the world as a consultant.  Turbulence is that event when you're on a plane and it starts shaking.  You clench the armrest or the person next to you.  

But the first time I got familiar with turbulence was not on a plane.  It was in my Bachelor's Degree in Chemical Engineering.  The class was called Transport Phenomena.  I spent a whole semester studying how fluids and gases flow through pipes.  

Fascinating, right?

There are two types of flow.  Laminar Flow is smooth and predictable.  ...

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This weekend, I spent the day in the woods.  50 degrees.  Sunny.  I even built a fire.

I sit down on a stump.  As I reflect, a meditation comes.

Work hard enough to have enough

Don't have enough?

Then make do with what you have

Can't make do?

Work hard to make do.

In between the time spent Working Hard and Making Do, there is Being Present.  

Notice and be grateful for the littlest of things 

Celebrate the gift of waking up in the morning

Notice the radiant beauty of flowers

Close your eyes and feel the breeze across your face

Listen to the diverse songs of each songbird 

Feel mud or sand squish between your middle toes

Feel cool air fill each portion of your lungs as that air rushes deep into your body

In a flash of a moment

Let your soul be filled
With Everything the Universe provides
Just to YOU
In this Present Moment

Sometimes we get lost on the brightly lit path from point A...

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I love comments from my blog post readers.  Last week, my sister provided more details regarding my roller coaster story from a previous blog post.  I added her account to the story in this week's blog post.  Her perspective opened a whole new theme about that roller coaster ride that changed all our lives.

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Do you like roller coasters?

I did when I was a kid.

My parents took us 4 children to Coney Island, an amusement park near Cincinnati.  When we walked up to the roller coaster, we insisted my Dad take us.  My Dad relented and we lined up to ride.  My Dad was apprehensive.  We giggled with excitement.

When we got to the operator, there was a life-sized cutout of a cartoon character that was slightly bigger than me.  That was the problem.  I was deemed too short to ride.  My siblings all passed.  

Disappointed, I turned back and sullenly walked...

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Do you like roller coasters?

I did when I was a kid.

My parents took us 4 children to Coney Island, an amusement park near Cincinnati.  When we walked up to the roller coaster, my brother and I insisted my Dad take us.  My Dad relented and we three lined up to ride.  My Dad was apprehensive.  We giggled with excitement.

When we got to the operator, there was a life-sized cutout of a cartoon character that was slightly bigger than me.  That was the problem.  I was deemed too short to ride.  My older brother, just slightly bigger, barely passed.  Disappointed, I turned back and sullenly walked back to where Mom was waiting at the ride exit.

"I never get to have ANY of the fun."  

I couldn't see my dad and brother during the ride.  All I heard was the rumbling carts as they zipped by like speeding trains.  

At last, I spotted Dad and my brother coming down the exit...

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I remember the voice mail from our CEO, Joe Forehand.  

"I'm happy to announce, today we have separated from Arthur Andersen."

In 2000, my company went through a business model change, from partnership to publicly held.  It fundamentally changed the very fabric of our company.  Gone were the days of renting out DisneyWorld for our Global Seminar.  Partners no longer could 'make the call' to take huge risks with clients.  We retained the title of Partner for YEARS when we were no longer a partnership.  

Many people left.  Disgruntled.  Bemoaning the past.  The Glory Days.

I stayed.  

Why?

After I left my PhD program in Organization Behavior, I considered my career as an ongoing PhD dissertation on how executives make decisions and how organizations face the reality and inevitability of …. CHANGE.

I stayed with voracious intellectual curiosity.  How do we...

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I've had lots of conversations recently about TIME.  Perhaps its because over the last year most people have radically transformed how they spend time.  

I LOVE to think about Time at a global level and across generations.  Big picture stuff.

Let's begin.

Guess what global life expectancy was in 1926?  Got a number in your head?

What was it in 2017?  Got that number.

Most people are way off.  

In 1926 the average global life expectancy was 36 years.  In 2017, it was 72.

Why did I pick 1926?  That's the year my Dad was born.  Isn't it amazing to think in just two generations from Dad to me, we DOUBLED life expectancy on the planet!

Let's push this graph.  

Researchers believe early humans from 30,000 years ago lived about 30 years.  Extrapolating the Time dimension on the graph above to the left to 30,000 BC, the line from 30,000 BC to 1926 is flat.  ...

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PeaceMakers do not stand on the sideline

They are not passive

They enter the fray

They are in the middle of it

They meticulously equip for battle

With sharpened tools of
knowledge
experience
good judgment
and empathy

Wisdom and Empathy is their battle axe

Wisdom and Empathy is their shield

Wisdom and Empathy is the core of their healing power

Peacemakers know that change

First comes from within

Before any hope of changing anyone else

Peacemakers do not seek to win

Losing is not possible

Winning nor losing are relevant

PeaceMakers do not see battle nor battlefield

They see Ceremony

They enter Ceremony with undaunted Courage

Because they KNOW they will leave …. different

Different … with deep understanding of Others

Different … with deep understanding of Themselves

Different … because the very trajectory of life

Will NEVER again be the same

After Living

On the Middle Edge