The intellectual struggles for people are often split between the attempt to be wise, and the attempt to become a visionary. Both of these traits, wisdom and vision, are both exemplary and complimentary. However, this means the lack of one can make the other unsatisfactory to some degree.Vision without wisdom and wisdom without vision each create unique pitfalls for the individual, so it is imperative that if one means to use one trait, the lack of a complimentary trait must be identified before action is taken.
What is wisdom? It is having the combination of experience, knowledge, and good judgement. Experience is the foundation of this trait, because with experience naturally comes knowledge, and hopefully, improved judgement. Wisdom is all about learning as you live, and then taking what you have accumulated to create a method of thinking and doing. Life lessons can be extracted from personal events as well as facts, so experience ultimately guides what information a person possesses, as well as how an individual uses said information.
What is vision? It is being able to envision probable potentials, especially relating to one’s behavior or goals. The ability to envision what we should do points us in the right direction. It also enables us to select the stimuli that is most important so that we know what to react to and how. Vision acts as a kind of knowledge. It influences our judgment of both the present and future, and is impacted by past experience.
Vision without wisdom is like a fruitless idealism. You may take action toward a specific end you actually have no hope of reaching, or your actions could create unforeseen circumstances. It is the same with possessing knowledge without experience or good judgment skills. The right information (or goal) is there, but the person just doesn't know what to do with it or how to progress.
Wisdom without vision implies one often knows what is best in the present moment, but preparing for the future is rather difficult. Too many possibilities seem real or relevant. It can also be difficult to make progress on one’s goals, especially if they are more long-term. A lack of vision is similar to a lack of knowledge, which means there is ignorance. However, a wise person often takes such ignorance into account as well, so there may not be a reduction in judgment, but direction. It just depends on what goals and circumstances are involved.
Both of these qualities have an impact on how an individual reacts to the determiners of choice. Wisdom, for instance, may create a heavy focus on details, most commonly values, though any specific category could become important depending on the situation. However, vision relates heavily to goal progression, so things such as time and growth have a big influence. Values also impact the original goal of the individual, so such could frequently impact decisions as well. Ultimately, both are very similar, as each is a quality that influences the decision-making process in a positive way. Wisdom is more so the ability to deal with events as they come, while vision foresees the events beforehand. However, wisdom deals with so much more than just environmental or social changes, so such a comparison is only cursory.
Obtaining wisdom is not too difficult, provided the individual is an avid thinker. However, it seems like such thinking makes seeing the bigger picture more difficult, especially when trying to know how that picture will look in the future. Thinking about all one does implies there is a high probability of learning from said actions. The more this happens, the more you know about yourself, and the better your judgement becomes. This is not universally true, as you may still make poor decisions in an area you are unfamiliar with, but wisdom indicates you are properly using the information available to you. Vision, on the other hand, is closer to extrapolating information, and knowing how the reality of such a projection will change the physical, mental, or spiritual landscape.
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