Compassion

Consider the following five attributes:

Compassion

Wisdom

Cleverness

Kindness

Intelligence

Which one best describes you?

If we were to take an honest assessment of your character – if we were to ask people with whom you interact on a daily basis – which quality would they say best reflects you?

Are you wise? Compassionate? Clever? Kind? Or smart?

I hope folks would report me as being kind or compassionate. But I’m afraid the most popular answer for me would be that I’m clever. “Yeah, that Brian, he is clever.”

Interestingly, there is a difference between the characteristic I wish people used to describe me, and the one they would actually use to describe me.

I imagine I’m the only one with a difference between who I wish I were and who I actually am.

Which of the above five characteristics would you most like to be?

While I certainly take pride in my creativity, my outside-the-box, divergent thinking, I would rather be known for being kind than for being smart or wise.

I’ve come a long way from my childhood when clever and smart were über-paramount to my sense of self worth, but I’ve got a long ways to go still.

There’s a great quote by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel who said,

When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.

I strive to open up more towards my fellow human beings and be kinder.

How about you?

What’s most important to you?

Which quality do you need to develop in your life?

Which would make you more human?

Which would bring you a fuller, richer life?

What steps can you take to cultivate more of that particular characteristic in yourself?

Spiritual-religious advice: Ruminate on the quality you most want to embody, and live it.