Editor’s note: This article was first published in July 2014. The reference to “more than 2,500 articles” describes the original author’s blog output as of 2014.
Before we get to the question that brought you here, “how to become smarter,” we should define what being intelligent means, because you’ve probably heard that a high IQ doesn’t guarantee success.
We’ll define intelligence as the ability to solve problems and difficult situations in the easiest possible way. And this applies to every area of life.
This time we won’t go into the different types of intelligence, because we’d have emotional intelligence, intrapersonal, interpersonal, bodily, spatial, musical intelligence and so on… In my opinion, and in the opinion of many experts in psychology, the most important type of intelligence is emotional intelligence. Now let’s get down to business.
See also: Books to make you smarter
How to become smarter: what can you do every day to increase your intelligence?
Some people think that once we pass a certain age and our brain has finished developing, there’s nothing we can do to gain intelligence. That belief is false. There’s no age limit for becoming a “smarter” person, although it’s true that it can get harder as the years go by. Then again, according to some research, it doesn’t get harder simply because we get older, but because our brain is out of practice.
It can even happen because we’re the ones putting limits on ourselves.
In a recent Quora thread, users answered the question of what small things or habits we can adopt every day to become smarter. We’ve gathered some of the best answers and added a few others from my own experience.
1. Use the internet properly
You’ve probably found yourself more than once opening your Facebook wall and, four hours later, for some unknown reason, watching silly YouTube videos of crying babies or cats playing with dogs. Today the internet can be an enormous source of learning, offering something that never existed before: access to the opinions of brilliant people.
For example, I don’t understand why so many people don’t spend 30 minutes on TED Talks, which are a source of inspiration and wisdom from great talents. There are also dozens of blogs that can help us with any subject we want to learn, and even whet our appetite for topics that hadn’t appealed to us until then.
2. Talk to smart people
There’s no better way to catch some wisdom than to have smart people in your circle of friends. It’s one of the fastest ways to learn. It’s often said that your IQ is the average of the five people you talk to most in your daily life. So think about the people you surround yourself with and you’ll find some answers.
We all like to feel like the smartest person in the room, but the secret to becoming smarter and smarter is to keep feeling like the dumb one in your circle, because it’s a sign you can still improve.
See also: The importance of the people you surround yourself with
3. Write down what you learn
I would never have advised wasting time writing down what we learn, but I have to say I’ve noticed something curious. Over the years I’ve been writing on the blog, I must have written more than 2,500 articles. Some are purely for entertainment. Would you believe me if I told you that I remember practically everything I’ve written, almost point by point? When you write down what you learn, it sticks much more easily and you don’t forget it so quickly.
4. Explain what you’ve learned to others
“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” Albert Einstein said this. You can learn the definition of something and have no idea what you’re saying. That’s the main problem with university students. Make sure you can explain it so that someone else understands it. That will give you a skill that’s useful for practically everything, such as explaining a business idea to an investor in under two minutes so that they understand it perfectly. The same goes for adapting your language to people of every educational background, which is very useful in sales.
5. Play brain-training board games
We can have fun with a game and learn at the same time. From strategy games like checkers or chess to general knowledge games and even poker. If you want to exercise your brain, which is a muscle after all, you can also practice with crosswords or the famous sudoku puzzles. Anything that makes your brain sweat will make you smarter.
6. Read a lot
This is undoubtedly the best way to become smarter, because through reading we gather the writer’s wisdom. When you read a book that tells the story of how a great company was built, you’re holding 60 years of history that you can absorb in a few days or weeks. But you don’t just have to read; you also have to interpret. If you’re a reluctant reader, you can start by reading the newspaper every day, but please go beyond the sports section, unless you’re a sports agent.
7. Win debates
Have you ever tried defending a position you actually disagree with just for the sake of debating? It’s an exercise we used to do in sales courses. Why is it worthwhile?
Because it’s easy to debate when you’re defending something you believe in, but when you have to twist your brain around to find arguments in favor of something you don’t believe in… things get complicated. For example, someone who is against abortion has to switch sides for 30 minutes and present the advantages and benefits of abortion.
When we use politics and religion, you’d be surprised how many people end up believing the position they’re defending. That’s when they become a bit smarter, and some discover that, in fact, they’ve been victims of certain biases all their lives. Which brings us to the next interesting point.
8. Do something that scares you every week
Many people are afraid of public speaking; others are afraid to phone someone who could offer them a job or business opportunity, and so on. Shedding fears and many of the things that embarrass us also makes us smarter. (Read: 16 hard things you’ll have to do to achieve success.) You need constant challenges.
9. Learn a new language
Most experts agree that learning a language is an excellent way to train our brain and keep it from getting rusty. And it’s useful, too.
In short: don’t go to bed a single day without having learned something new. And for people who don’t know what really interests them, I’d personally always send them to the same place, because of how useful it is. One way or another, learning about these things will help you succeed or, failing that, hold on to your success.
In my opinion, the most useful subjects to learn from a young age are financial education, investing, negotiation, sales, human psychology and everything related to the business world, even if you don’t plan to be an entrepreneur.
There’s no doubt that financial intelligence will help you in the future, just like understanding how our brain behaves through psychology or neuroscience.
Further reading
- 15 habits for success in business and your career
- 7 things the world’s most successful people have in common
Featured image: © Jorge Royan / http://www.royan.com.ar, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
