The One You Feed
How do we close the gap between defining wisdom and integrating it into our daily lives? Why is discernment essential to navigating life with wisdom? What role do community and friendship play in living an intentional life? These are just a few questions I posed to my guest Eric Zimmer from the One You Feed podcast.
What is Wisdom?
How do you think about or define wisdom in daily life?
“I think about wisdom as being able to see as close to the truth of reality as possible. And then actually be able to implement that into our day-to-day life for that to actually influence how we act for that to be able to weigh in, in moments of our lives, where we're able to reflect and think and adjust and change and then act as us we could use the word wisely as possible.” […]
Discernment in Daily Life
The Stoics defined wisdom as knowing what is good, knowing what is bad, and knowing what is indifferent. Simple to say. But there's a lot of discerning and contemplation to know the difference. How do you think about discernment or reflection to help us to navigate life?
“It's challenging. I think what you just said in principle sounds really easy to know what's good, what's bad, and to know what's indifferent. I'll give you an example from my own life. My mother is not well, so she needs a certain amount of care. If she had her way, I would spend every hour of every day with my mother, right? That's what my life would be, right?
That's not what I want my life to be. And so I'm always asking myself what's right, what is the right thing to do? What I want is somebody to come out of the sky and say, Eric, if you spend two hours a week with your mother, and you take her to all your doctor's appointments, you're a good guy. But that doesn't exist? Because the answer that's right for me might be very different than the answer that's right for you, that might be very different for the answer. That's right for my partner. So discernment, to me, takes a lot of thinking. And I also think discernment happens really well in community.” […]
To learn more, listen to the entire conversation with Eric Zimmer, the host of the award-winning podcast The One You Feed, wherever you listen to podcasts. Eric is a behavior coach, spiritual director, and someone inspired by the quest for a greater understanding of how our mind works and how to intentionally create the lives we want to live. Learn more about Eric’s work at oneyoufeed.net.
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Thank you for reading/listening; I hope you found something useful.
Until next time, be wise and be well,