“Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore, get wisdom: And with all thy getting get understanding.” Proverbs 4:7

As I read this quote one morning last week, I immediately thought of the recent milk ad campaign — Got Milk? And I wondered, what is it to ‘have wisdom?’

I know it’s useful to make a distinction between knowledge and wisdomk knowledge is the accumulation of facts. Wisdom is knowing how to use those facts to enhance life.

For example, one aspect of my recent Life On Purpose Book Project that has caught me by surprise is how many books have been used in the promotion and marketing. I’d just never thought about it. I knew we’d be giving some books away but I didn’t realize how many.

So, when I received a message that the latest shipment of books had just arrived and were almost used up already, the lack base thinking of my Inherited Purpose began to take over.

But not for long, thanks to the Power Tool of Purposeful Pivoting. For starters I decided to get the facts, to take away the generalization of “we’re sure giving away A LOT of books,” to find out just how many we were sending out. So, Carol, my publicist sent me a report with the monthly numbers. This gave me the ‘knowledge,’ the information, but it was still up to me what I would do with it.

I then had the choice whether to allow my Inherited Purpose to continue to shape my life, which would mean I’d continue to disempower myself, or I could choose to look at it from my true life purpose. Guess which I chose?

That’s right. With just a little effort and awareness I was able to make a powerful pivot, from “Oh no, we’re giving all these books away for nothing, and it’s really worse than that. I’m paying my publicist to give them away…. Yadda yadda… Instead I shifted to:

1. The cost of review copies is a normal operating expense.
2. I know and trust Carol to be discerning as to where she sends them. That’s why I hired her.
3. Isn’t it great that she’s not only inviting a lot of people to learn about my book, but many of them are saying, “Yes, I’d like to see it, and then many of them are saying some very delightful things about the book, which is so much better than if Carol made all those contact but no one wanted to see the book.

Now, not all my pivots happen as quickly or as powerfully as this one, but I do find that regularly practicing with this tool is making subsequent pivots to be easier. And for me, that’s real wisdom in action and on purpose.

(To read some of the positive comments about LIFE ON PURPOSE: Six Passages to an Inspired Life, and listen to some of the many radio interviews I’ve been on lately, go to: http://www.wbradfordswift.com/lop/media