Cultivating wisdom, as conceptualized by the Wisdom-Centered Life, consists of four steps:
1. Background. Learning wisdom's history, what people have said about it. Maybe examplars, both major historical figures and people we have known. But What makes an action or a viewpoint wise? For a number of definitions of wisdom, click on the "About Wisdom" link on the task bar to the left.
2. Developing a wisdom perspective. This provides cognitive development, and a cognitive structure for a change of perspective. It also provides a framework for transforming your life, based on a model of wisdom. Naturally, this model will change as you do. For these, click on the link "Principles" on the task bar to the left.
3. Practice. There are currently 23 exercises, such as "centering before entering" the "3-second calming exercise", "review of the day". These provide practical activities to use to change behavior. For these, click on the link "Exercises" on the task bar to the left.
4. Action--played either in a small group, or individually. Small group work and individual play both involve reflective case study, in which a person selects a situation from her or his own life in which E would like to demonstrate more wisdom. There is a template for writing reflections on the situation, and there are 5 criteria for assessing the wisdom that does result.
Reflective case study is the heart of the program. It is the "royal road to wisdom." It will probably work best when working in groups of 3 to 6. But also fine engaged in individually, or with a coach.
Current learning theory maintains that people learn best by connecting new information to already-existing knowledge. A good place to begin with this step is to recall choices you have made that you feel were well made, that exemplify wisdom.
Wisdom is defined as profound insight into reality and making choices conformant with this insight, or perceiving reality and doing what is best. This is a bit problematic, as humans have little knowledge of how things actually are, and a marked tendency to believe we know more than we do. Examination of the changing beliefs about reality over the past 5000 years puts any "certainty" in better perspective. It seems more likely that at the present time humanity is transitioning to a fundamentally different relation to the cosmos. Perhaps the change upon which we are embarking is without precedent, at least since the development of civilization. Certainly our understanding of our position in the universe has changed radically in the past few centuries. Current innovations in biology, physics, cosmology, technology, and so on, make it plausible that humans are at the beginning of a context that is very different from what we have hitherto known.
The definition of wisdom used here is open to question, but it is pretty mainstream. Another way it can be phrased is "perceiving reality and doing what is best." At any rate, following the 4 steps will enable a person to become wiser whatever the definition of wisdom E uses. And the whole thing can be continually improved.
For a bit more background, see my article “Wisdom and Lifelong Learning in the 21st Century”. London Review of Education, Vol. 5(2), July 2007, pp. 159-172.