Ever feel that you're not smart or creative enough? Ever think that you could have more opportunities if only you think differently or somehow raise your level of smarts? Do you spend time working out your body, but little time reading books, learning new vocabulary, or working creatively? These tips will help you increase your intelligence and enhance your creativity.
1. Read Books: Reading is a foundational activity for building your intelligence. How do you go about this? Simple: Find a book that interests you, and read it. Or, find a book that your colleagues or friends have talked about, but under normal circumstances you'd never read. Skimming a book is not a bad thing to do either, as long as you're able to get the gist of it. A good place to start is a simple book by Mortimer J. Adler, entitled How to Read a Book (and don't let the simplicity of the name fool you--it's a simple and wonderful book.
2. Enhance Memory: In the Renaissance period, memory was foundational for genius. Today, however, we have devices that do our thinking for us (I know one person who relies on his phone's contact list to find his phone number), which is becoming less acceptable as machine smarts are threatening to supplant human intelligence. Having a strong memory is a critical skill for our times. There are innumerable sources for enhancing memory online, and countless books on it.
3. Build Vocabulary: Having a strong vocabulary is a sign of intelligence, and can be a way to stand out among one's peers and colleagues. There are a number of ways to build vocabulary, such as reading books designed to increase your vocabulary, playing Scrabble, doing crossword puzzles, and writing down words you come across in books and articles.
4. Enhance Reasoning: Logic is a way of understanding how arguments function, as well as a framework for making valid statements; and given that a great deal of work in our society hinges on logical problem solving, being able to think your way through an argument, and understand the difference between good and bad reasoning, is vital. The key here is to look into informal logic--and there are tons of books and videos one can look at to learn about and enhance this skill.
5. Listen: This is a skill that's very hard for some to do, but very important for building intelligence. People have different points of view. Intelligence is understood as listening to another's beliefs, and us it to add to your own perception of the world. As well, listening to others can help you solve their problems in a more effective way, thus bolstering your intelligence.
6. Eat Your Eggs Different in the Morning: In other words: try new things. To be a creative person requires that you try new things and document your learning. The purpose is to create a sense of divergence of experiences to shock you into a new way of thinking.
7. Get a Creative Hobby: Did you love painting in high school? Or watch people doing pottery and wish you could if you could get off the couch? Ever wanted to get into woodworking, but don't know where to start? The famous psychologist, Carl Jung, maintained that creativity is to the soul what food is to the body. Meaning that doing creative work is essential to being a whole person. Figure out what it is, and do it.
8. Morning Pages: This is an amazing practice that I learned by reading Julia Cameron's book on Creativity. The process is simple: every morning when you get up, take 3 sheets of paper--whether loose or in a notebook, and write down whatever comes to your mind. This simple exercise will help you get in touch with your emotions, which is a sign of emotional intelligence.
There are other ways to improve your intelligence that we'll cover in future posts.
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