To think like a smarter person (about something) or getting smarter (at something) implies something has been learned.
It’s also a quality that is earned over time. We become book smart when we read and learn from many books. We become street smart when we know how to survive by navigating real-world challenges in daily life. What we need is fool-proof tactics to become a smarter person.
Intelligence, by contrast, is often associated with IQ as a measure of our ability to learn, not how much we have learned. In most definitions it indicates it is something we are born with, that is inherent, and therefore originates from our genetic makeup. It can also imply either the capacity to obtain or the possession of a degree of higher education.
Continuous learning: Life Success Lessons: 10 You Need to Learn Early in Your Career
Our objective is to recommend fool=proof tactics for getting smarter. Let’s get to it.
Talk to smarter people
Befriend and engage in conversations with people who are smarter than you. You can expand your knowledge base and vocabulary by simply being around intelligent individuals.
Be more open-minded
Being smart involves being open to different viewpoints even if they contradict your own. Be open to learning about viewpoints and concepts that you disagree with so that you become a more well-rounded individual.
Go out of your comfort zone as much as possible
Take risks. Here is how. Failing is very important in the process of learning. Getting out of your comfort zone is paramount.
Always challenge your ideas and points of view
It is critical thinking and being open-minded. It forces you to challenge your thinking.
Always look for self-improvement
We are never going to be perfect, and this is great. It gives us that spark always to have something to improve. No time to get bored! It makes you smarter because you will know more about yourself.
Look for new skills
Again this is about cerebral plasticity. It could be playing an instrument, juggling, counting in Bridge, computer programming, etc. Always reach for something new.
How to get smarter in school … know yourself
You have to understand when your emotions are getting over your rational thinking. It improves introspective and self-reflective capacities.
Always have a book with you
When waiting: read. It’s not only about reading per se, but it’s also about focus and self-discipline. You need both to get smarter. How can you solve a problem if you can’t focus? And how would you solve it if you fail to commit yourself to the task?
Read as much as possible
Now, I am talking about reading per se. It improves your verbal-linguistic abilities, creativity, memory, open-mindedness. It also permits you to keep learning in your spare time.
Get in touch with your creativity
Do artistic activity. Paint, write, sculpt, dance, etc.… It helps your brain to process information, improves your creativity/imagination.
As Einstein stated: “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand”.
Become a smarter person: research what interests you
Educating yourself doesn’t have to be boring. I recommend starting off by making a list of things you’ve always wanted to learn more about. Getting smarter doesn’t mean you have to spend hours learning about things that are of no interest to you.
Engage in more discussions
You can join groups like book clubs or have conversations on specific subjects with friends or people you know.
What’s great about discussions is that you are always met with information from someone else on a topic that you never knew before. Discussions have the power really to expand your worldview.
Stay hungry, stay foolish
A quote from Steve Jobs. The first way to get smarter is to be the dumbest in the room, at the same time, be genuinely curious about things.
If you think you’re smart and you have zero interests in anything else besides those you knew, you’re going to stay forever at where you are.
Consume great work
This depends on your profession, your industry, and the topics of your interests. I’m a blogger, at the same time, I want to be a successful entrepreneur (or the other way around), so I read a lot about topics that I’m writing, about how to write better, and about entrepreneurship.
Test and collect feedback
Things get better via the feedback loop. Our skills improve via the same feedback loop, and so do our minds.
The BIGGEST mistake people made in getting smarter or better at anything is that they don’t put in the real work. Testing out what they have learned. Put in the work, so you know what you don’t still know yet.
Date someone smarter
There is no one you will spend more time with than a lover. That’s why it’s wise always to date someone who is your intellectual superior in a couple of categories. They will use words that you’ve never heard.
They will talk about books you would have never thought about reading. And they will usually find the holes in the beliefs that you hold dear.
Be hungry
Be hungry for knowledge. Be obsessed with the idea of becoming smarter. Make studying your priority and an integral part of your daily routine. Then you can be sure you will dedicate sufficiently much time to it.
Write
Writing is by far the best exercise for your brain. Unlike reading, it requires not only the consumption of information but its creation as well. Writing teaches you to think, develop and compose.
Take online courses
A great variety of studying opportunities provided online cannot be ignored. It is a fantastic means to become smarter and master new skills. Besides, more people are pursuing online education as remote learning leaders push the boundaries of what is possible in this space. By leveraging technology, these leaders create effective and engaging student learning environments. Keep studying as often as possible.
Create content
Whether it’s writing in a journal or painting a picture for fun. Make sure you are always creating. There is something about creating something new, but it activates a certain part of the mind. So always, always be creating.
Critique art
When you’re watching a movie, write down a couple of things you enjoyed and disliked. If you’re having a hard time verbalizing what it is you liked, read reviews of the movie and look up the words they use.
Do this with all the art you consume, until you start thinking like a critic. This will help you appreciate great art on a deeper level, and art implies life, so understanding art will help you understand the world.
Take part in conferences
Frequently, local institutions organize seminars and conferences of a different kind and invite authoritative persons to hold a speech. It is a superb way to get an insight into issues you are interested in.
Become a smarter person … generate ideas
Flex your idea muscle. Set a goal to generate ten ideas a day. Stick with the plan. With time the quality of your ideas will start increasing exponentially, while the process will become much easier.
If you want to become more intelligent as measured by being effective in daily life compared to your peers, here’s what you need to do:
Learn how to speed read
This is a significant advantage that not everyone has. You can teach yourself by taking a class or reading the classic The Evelyn Wood Seven-Day Speed Reading and Learning Program
Develop a large vocabulary
A definite prerequisite to being seen as intelligent. Intelligent people can handle big words and are not intimidated when others throw big words at them.
Having a large vocabulary helps in breaking down complex ideas because often these are expressed using complicated vocabulary. There are numerous books to train you on how to do this. For example, Word Smart, 5th Edition (Smart Guides).
Develop a sharp memory
This is another huge advantage relative to your peers. The ability to quickly memorize a large list of items is both impressive and intellectually intimidating. Again this boils down to a series of lesser-known heuristics. You can learn them from a memory world champion here: How to Develop a Perfect Memory: Dominic O’Brien
Last but not least: Have fun!
Enjoying life is critical to get smarter. You have to keep willing to learning.
The bottom line
With companies today, contending with new dimensions of competition– shaping malleable situations, adapting to uncertain ones, and surviving harsh ones – all require new approaches.
Team coaching is one of the new collaborative cultural norms in creating high-performing and faster-moving teams, and within collaborative communities, to lead in the imagination age, in today’s fast-changing world.
