Wisdom comes with some assembly required. It's easy to put it together, because wisdom consists of only two pieces. However, people still manage to mess it up, even though the basic components are simple:
Wisdom = Experience + Self-Reflection
Experience is the part of wisdom that most people know about. You've heard the cliché (read: outright lie) that older people are wise by default. This trite notion stems from the idea that older people have more life experience. Therefore, they must be wise. However, experience is not enough. I can guarantee you've met some old fart that was completely ignorant. Their octogenarian status doesn't earn them a lick of wisdom.
Self-reflection is the often missing component of wisdom. To be wise, you have to experience what life has to offer, but you also must critically reflect upon what happened, and the role you played in the events that transpired. Self-reflection is the habitual act of asking what you could have done better, what role you played, and if you are being honest with yourself. Loads of life experience won't do you any good if you can't admit when you made things worse for yourself and others. The "lessons" learned from your experience won't equal wisdom when there is no self-reflection; you'll simply be deluded.
To be wise, you must be clear-seeing about the experiences you've had. There will be times where you were the villian, but on another day the hero. Other times, you'll have made the world a better place, or maybe you made the situation worse than it had to be. Self-reflection will help you make sense of experiences that you can turn into valuable lessons.
We can become wise only when we are willing to practice self-reflection in all that we experience.
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