I’m a big fan of tapping into the collective wisdom in a room. One person sees a problem you couldn’t see; another has a solution to an issue you’ve struggled to resolve. That’s why I enjoy teamwork: I know I don’t have all the answers, and I benefit from learning from the wisdom of others.
Yet sometimes we struggle to listen to our own wisdom. Our wisdom is learned through self-knowledge and life experiences, but we often doubt it. We don’t give our wisdom enough credit. And we need the validation of others for us to acknowledge that our wisdom is even valuable or right. Sometimes we outsource our wisdom to professionals to “tell us what to do” or evaluate a situation because we simply do not trust ourselves. We need someone else’s stamp of approval to feel comfortable with our own intuition.
I recently outsourced my wisdom, only to discover that the person who I outsourced it to wasn’t on the mark. I came to realize that in this situation, I was the expert – on me and on the issue in question. No doubt, there are times when it is necessary to seek professional guidance and support. But in this situation, I had to do the hard work of identifying areas I could improve while also acknowledging that, wait a minute, I’ve got this, and I know what I’m doing. I have built layers of hard-earned, seasoned wisdom based on trial and error, mistakes and successes. No one else can fully understand that – and have that particular knowledge of myself – besides me.
Da’as is a deep, intuitive knowledge. I am learning not to doubt my da’as, and I hope you will join me.