Too Soon Old. Wise and Smart – Too late!

GUEST COLUMN: Dr N Prabhudev

Bangalore, Jan. 17: How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are? Wisdom doesn’t necessarily come with age. Sometimes age just shows up all by itself. Smart people can see the perspective in multiple angles! Intelligence isn’t always something you’re born with. Smartness can be cultivated – age is no bar!

The Dunning-Kruger effect?
True wisdom is when you realise that there is so much more to learn and what you know amounts to nothing! It’s the most incompetent who are the most confident, while the most intelligent doubt their own doubts. Dumb people are too dumb to understand exactly how dumb they are.
Is Wisdom Related to Age? Humility and gratitude defines wisdom! A morally repugnant person cannot be wise! Age does not beget wisdom. Experience never gets old. Old age is neither sufficient nor necessary for one to be wise.

We tend to idolize youth. Aging is stigmatized. Age is a necessary but insufficient requirement for growing up. With every landmark birthday, we are all assailed by chronic illnesses and painful conditions—death by a thousand cuts. But vanity can be a great motivator for healthy change. Growing up and growing old are two significant experiences. We grow old when regrets replace dreams.

As you grow, Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is enlightenment. You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair.
• Rest when you are tired – young. Rest before you are tired – old.
• A rich person is the one who has the most- young. Rich is one who needs the least – old.
• Lose health to make money – young. Lose money to restore health- old!
• Live as if they will never die – Young! Die as if they had never lived – Old!
• Shop until you drop- Young! Serve until you drop- Old!
• Any fool can count the seeds in an apple – young. Only God can count all the apples in one seed – Old.
• Why Is Life So Hard? – Young! It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it- old!
• Marry the person you are in love with! – Young! Marry the person you cannot live without- old.

When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life. Now that I am old I know it is. We are what we do. Smart is a vague term. Being smart is to be quick-witted and intelligent. Smartness much like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Smart is the ability to put ideas together and create solutions to problems, is the ability to focus, concentrate, and communicate. Smart is to be curious and to continuously evolve.

There have always been some who are incredibly smart teenagers around. Teen geniuses are nothing new. There are more of them around today. Getting smart later in life can be monumentally difficult. Past a certain point in life, the odds are that the die is cast, the stones are set, and one isn’t likely to change.
Way forward! Youth of today can change the world – if we let them. Include youth in Governance – ambitious, enthusiastic, energetic and promising. His greatest arsenal is his innovative mind embellished with creativity. Youths must rise up to their responsibility as future leaders.
Young at “still -you’re looking wonderful- age”.

• Have a “so-what” approach to getting older.
• Keep the Body in motion, and the Mind in action.
• Throw out nonessential numbers… age, weight and height. Let the doctors worry about them.
• Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.
• Keep learning – computers, crafts, whatever. Never let brain be idle. “Idle mind is the devils workshop!” And the devil’s name is Alzheimer’s.
• Laugh often and loud. Enjoy simple things.
• Take care of your health – If it is good – preserve it, if it is not- improve it. you can’t get help.
• Tell the people that you love them.

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