"If one is too lazy to think, too vain to do a thing badly, too cowardly to admit it, one will never attain wisdom." - Cyril Connolly

Wisdom comes through contemplation of life experiences. When you ponder about the events that happen in your life and why you or other people do or don't do things, you will learn and gain insights.

You can measure your understanding by the way you respond to events, situations and people. You are wise when you don't jump to conclusions. You avoid making prior judgments. You are confident about your thoughts and feelings. You won't let your emotions shape your decisions.

How to gather wisdom and gain enlightenment.

• Learn from failures and success.

Learn from others as well as from your own experiences. If you fail to get the result that you expected, look upon it as feedback and an experiment. Analyze it. Use your creativity and mind storm ideas. Test yourself further. Take more actions or try new things and watch the outcome.

Learn from success. If you can do it once, you can do it again. If people can do things, you can too.

Your common sense and understanding will develop the more you find solutions and solve your problems. The path to enlightment may be long. With enough learning experiences, you will finally develop acumen.

• Pay attention.

Pay attention to what's happening. Watch other people's behavior and your own conduct. Observe how you interact and how people treat you. Listen to your language and that of others.

Take notice of your persistent problems. Become aware of your sensations and feelings. Learn to uncover your fears, find out the triggers and how you get inspired.

Develop your interest and curiosity. Learn to evaluate, organize the information that you have gathered and use your common sense to filter and make up your mind.

• Gather knowledge.

Gather an enormous amount of information from books if you want to develop good and wise judgments. Observe life and people, study them and get to know as much as you can.

Knowledge gives you a sense of direction and motivates. It provides you with more choices to enable you to make the right decisions. Education helps shape your philosophy and values.

• Tune in. Take time to think.

Put time aside for solitude to gain illumination. In silence, you may find the answers that were not obvious. You attain wisdom through regular period of deep meditation. This is the time when you can reflect on your daily and weekly happenings and use them for your future.

Your soul thinks and understands and that means you have to look inside to find what you are seeking. It beckons you to wake up, learn, understand your emotions and make better decisions.

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