Saturday Sage: Kris Wants to Be a Sage
Dear Kris,
Your interest in becoming a sage is honorable. However, it takes longer than you expect. You don’t take a class in sagacity. Becoming a sage happens like seasons change, unnoticed at first.
What’s surprising about a sage? They have made peace with failure.
“Failures, repeated failures are finger posts on the road to achievement. One fails forward toward success.” Attribution Uncertain
You become a sage by building one good decision on top of another. But know that mistakes give birth to good decisions, mistakes that are costly and humbling. A sage has said forgive me more frequently than you expect.
If you want to become a sage, model wise decision-making in your own life.
A sage looks at life like a question and inspires others to wrestle with life choices. You won’t make decisions for people. You will help people make their own decisions.
“The way of the sage is to act but not to compete”. Laozi
A sage doesn’t:
- Tell people what they need to be successful.
- Claim to have complete certainty.
- Talk more than listen.
- Suggest you live cautiously.
- Speak critically of others.
- Act unsympathetically.
- Violate a confidence by telling other people’s stories to persuade you.
- Struggle to convince.
- Flaunt sagacity.
- Hide their mistakes.
Are you still interested?
10 things a sage does:
- Models values that last.
- Knows how to live skillfully.
- Reminds you not to sabotage your life.
- Helps you recover from bad decisions.
- Wipes fog from the mirror.
- Brings you to a fork in the road and lets you decide.
- Points the way without telling you what to do.
- Explains options.
- Leads you toward your best options.
- Reminds you to walk with great people.
Of all the things you aspire to, sagacity guarantees you will not live life alone. When the future is fuzzy and decisions matter, we all want to sit with a sage.
Sages come disguised as experts, scientists, doctors, philosophers, and entrepreneurs. More importantly, they are mechanics, bus drivers, plumbers, moms, dads, and grandparents.
Are you humble enough to continue?
Reflections:
What are the top three things a sage brings to someone’s life?
Have you ever met a sage? Describe that person.
Who are ten famous people who aren’t likely to become a sage? Why?
What is true of a sought-after sage?
This post is a collaboration between Dan Rockwell and Stan Endicott.
Note: I relax my 300-word limit on weekends.
Dan, I have read you for years and this is one of my favorites. A cool tie in of something I want to have in my life and also something I would be humbled to be to others in life.
Thanks Shea for being a long-time reader. You encourage me. Thanks goes to my collaborator Stan on this post. I’m thankful you found it useful.
It’s not selfish to desire to make a difference, to be sought-after because you bring value. It’s a privilege. I wish you well on the journey.
Dan, Actually, I run a school for aspiring sages. In 2 years they can earn their Sh.D in Sagjstics. Please have them contact me directly. Great post.
Wow, I had no idea. I wish you well.
Wipes the fog from the mirror…
How I love this word picture.
Always a pleasure, nonolithoman. Now if we can just face the reality that looking inot a foggy mirror can feel quite good when clear vision is discomforting.
I always read your posts, Dan. This one is extremely well-written as I guess you were writing about YOU. I’m a big fan, Dan and hope to meet you some day, in person or virtually. The gains will ne huge!
I like to think of my Sage as my Higher Self. It’s who I am at my core, before ego (where my saboteur resides) and fear — my saboteur’s and others’ — get in the way. My Sage knows best. I simply need to let her express Herself and listen with my entire being. And we are all Sage. If only we could live and work from our essence ….
This is one of your better posts, and I enjoy them all!
I wonder what is the average Sage age…