Wisdom · The Prism
Put wisdom into what you make.
Look at how she holds the prism. She is not rushing to use it — she is examining it. She lifts it to the light and turns it slowly, and every turn shows her a different color hidden inside the same piece of glass. That is what it means to examine a thing: to stay with it long enough to see every side before you decide what it is and what to do with it. A woman who examines first makes things that are wise — her products, her words, her home, her business.
Hold it
Take it into your hand
Examining starts with slowing down. Pick the thing up — the idea, the offer, the problem, the product — and give it your full attention. You cannot see clearly what you only glance at.
Turn it
See every side
A prism shows one color from the front and a different one from the side. Turn the thing over: How does it look to the woman buying it? To your husband, your children, your client? What does it look like a year from now?
Light
Hold it to the truth
The prism only shows its colors in the light. Hold what you are making up to what is true and good — the Laws, your C·E·O words, plain common sense. Light shows the cracks as well as the beauty, and both are worth seeing.
Separate
Name what is inside
A prism splits one beam into many colors. Wisdom does the same: it separates a tangled matter into its parts so you can name each one — what is the attribute (who), the character (how it acts) and the perfection (what you have to work with).
Make
Then put wisdom into it
Only now do you build. Because you have seen it whole, you make it with care: the right price, the right words, the right gift for the right woman. Wise things last, because someone examined them before they were made.
The three sections of the day
Adventure CEO · Act
Look before you leap
Before you start something new today, pick it up and turn it three times. Write one thing you see from each side.
Apprentice CEO · Art
Examine your craft
Hold your own work to the light. What is beautiful in it? What is cracked? Mend one crack before you add anything new.
Mastery CEO · Prosper
Make wisely, every time
Examining becomes how you work. Every product, page and promise passes through the prism before it reaches anyone else.
Shadow and light
Hasty → Examined
The hasty woman makes what she first imagined. The wise woman makes what she found after looking.
One-sided → Whole
Seeing one color is not seeing the light. Turn it until you have seen them all.
Careless → Careful
Careless work is quickly made and quickly broken. Careful work carries the wisdom of the one who made it.
Today's practice
- 1Choose one thing you are making this week — a product, a post, a plan or a meal.
- 2Turn it three ways: how it looks to you, to the one receiving it, and a year from now. Write one line for each.
- 3Hold it to the light of today's Law, mend one thing you found, then make it.
Examining a thing belongs to every day of the CEO system: look, turn, light, separate, then make.
Open Day 25 in the plannerMake something wise