Book Smart vs. "Street" Smart

Have you ever noticed the difference between book smarts and "street" smarts? Which do you hold in higher regard or feel is more important?

Book Smarts can be likened to a formal education or practicing only what you have been told. It is to learn and apply concepts and information that are really only second hand to the student in nature. In other words, none of the knowledge is your true experience. Life has yet to prove any of it to you. It is traditional perspective now seen through your eyes.

Street Smarts can be likened to your own personal perception and experience. It is an almost instinctual and more overly, intuitive knowledge. It comes from experience which has directly affected you. It may stem from a higher sense of perception and being in tune with your reality. It may even be information that you learned from books or other people. The difference would be that the information went beyond a mere concept and became your true life experience.

Check out "Who Told You To Move?"

Don't take my word for it. That would be the 'book smart' thing to do. Put the info to the test. Is it true for you? Gaining the perspective of experience is the 'street smart' way to go.

Who Told You To Move?

Quick scenario: You are standing at an intersection that you want to cross. The traffic lights are not in your favor. You decide to cross anyway.

Who told you to move? How did you know it was OK for you to cross that street? Sounds like a question almost too obvious to answer, right? You'd be surprised!

This simple scenario happens billions of times a day around the world in varying levels of complication and with all kinds of situations. To simplify a little bit; a majority of the decisions we make; we are either going with what we know or we are going with what we are told.

The way so many of us were raised in this society was to follow the old tradition. Obey the law. Stay in line. Keep your head down. Don't make waves. Don't question authority. There are dozens, if not hundreds of things that we do as a society that is only done because our parents, grandparents, and great grandparents did them.

I'm not advocating throwing everything that we continue to do out the window. We build upon the strengths and innovations of those who came before us. What I am advocating is the awareness not to take everything at face value. I am talking about the awareness to scrutinize a situation or concept and see it from the perspective of the present moment. To be able to remove the old labels others have given it and see it right now, through your own eyes.

The traffic light is the 'what you have been told'. It is the news. It is the government. It is religion. It is all the beliefs identified with by the egoic mind. It is only an idea of what is.

You crossing the street came from a different place. You crossed the street because you were in the moment. You were present enough to look at your surroundings and feel that there was no threat or danger in crossing that street. Nobody had to tell you a thing. You observed what it was for yourself.

Your own perception over external sources of information is the morale of the story. Don't speculate. Investigate. Don't even take my word for it. Test it for yourself before you take it as truth. You will find that there is so much more to you than you might realize right now.

Read What Is Really Good? to find out more.
Stay tuned!