Understanding is a tough mistress who makes you deserve her favor: it demands focus, effort, humility, time and patience.

Whether gained through years of painstaking trial and error or learned from other people’s experiences, there is no shortcut to knowledge. 

The discernment that makes a fundamental difference in one’s life can not be faked, purchased, transferred or taken away.

This is one of its perks, actually: it makes the world transparent to your wide-open eyes in every way, big or small, good or bad, so you can see the truth.

Nobody regrets understanding the truth, however harsh and unforgiving the latter, living in a childlike state of fairytale bliss based on limited knowledge and choice feels demeaning in retrospect, but it does shatter the illusions we build our lives upon, along with their limitations and artifice.

Gaining this knowledge is the hardest thing one can ever do, and many people go through entire lifetimes avoiding the monumental effort required. 

Though life seems to flow easier this way, it does not.

Having fewer choices never translated to having better choices.

True understanding trains fundamental skills like effective communication, setting worthwhile goals, forming meaningful relationships, fast learning techniques, understanding patterns and the connections between events, and the highly undervalued skill of ministering to one’s body.

Wisdom yields longer, healthier, more interesting and more accomplished lives, not easier ones.

It is a constant quiet struggle against the trifling, futile concerns that pilfer one’s time and energy for no discernible benefit.

Understanding and discipline often, but not always, go hand in hand. 

Sometimes people spend decades in fruitless effort, only to have wisdom dropped on them all at once, sometimes in their sleep, like a miraculous revelation.

In conclusion, what are the points worth remembering?

1. Acquiring wisdom requires focus, effort, humility and patience: it has to be earned.
2. Understanding can’t be faked, bought, transferred, or taken away; it removes the veil of illusion so you can see the truth.
3. Life limits our reach and won’t permit us to function beyond the threshold of knowledge and skill we’ve earned.
4. Understanding doesn’t make you happy, just lifts you up to broaden your perspective.
5. In retrospect, nobody regrets gaining understanding: having fewer choices never translates to having better choices.
6. Wisdom yields longer, healthier, more interesting and more accomplished lives, not easier ones.
7. Awareness and discipline often, but not always, come bundled.
8. When knowledge is revealed unexpectedly, all at once, it is the cumulation of decades of patience, learning and effort.