The chances are that others have limited, are limiting, and will limit your intelligence in the future; therefore, to protect yourself, you may have to learn and develop your intelligences independently and by any means necessary.
Why Others May Limit Your Intelligence?
Intentionally or unintentionally, many of the top schools and universities supported and promoted outdated ideas about intelligence, believing that it was:
- Fixed and stuck at birth
- Measurable on standard paper and pencil tests
- Determined by our genes
- Mainly to do with maths and speaking different languages
As a result, you are likely to find that many professionals such as politicians, lawyers, doctors, teachers, presidents, prime ministers, and bankers still maintain these types of false beliefs about your intelligence.
How to Protect & Develop Your Intelligence?
In 1983, a developmental psychologist called Dr Howard Gardner wrote a revolutionary book (“Frames of Mind”), arguing that we all possess at least eight different types of intelligence:
- Picture Intelligence
- Maths Intelligence
- Word Intelligence
- Body Intelligence
- Music Intelligence
- Nature Intelligence
- People Intelligence
- Self Intelligence
Unlike the beliefs held by many of the top institutions and professions, he found that:
- Intelligence changes, grows, and stretches until we die
- Different races or cultures emphasis different intelligences
- Intelligence cannot be accurately measured by standard tests because every person is unique
- Intelligence is grown and shaped by an individual’s personal experiences and surrounding environment
- Intelligence relating to maths and languages are only of equal importance in comparison to the other six intelligences
Influenced by this revolutionary book, a bestselling writer called David Lazear spent 15 years turning Dr Gardner’s work into something that we could use to make important changes in our everyday lives.
Lazear had studied everything that he could about what humans are capable of, and concluded that Dr Gardner’s work offered the best insight into an understanding of our intelligence.
In his book, ‘OutSmart Yourself,’ Lazear encourages you to take a profile that reveals the differing strengths of your eight intelligences. He then show you how to improve each intelligence with the use of study exercises so that you can instantly begin to think, learn, and work smarter.
Studying Lazear’s text has had a profound impact on my intelligences and understanding of intelligence. It has caused me to become more critical of any social practices that limit the intelligence of others, and further challenged me to create a lifestyle that utilises my full capabilities.
For example, to enhance my self-intelligence, I followed Lazear’s instructions to create a future-plan that aligns one’s thoughts, desires, beliefs, and values. He argues that overtime this type of alignment allows people to act with extra-ordinary levels of focus, determination, and commitment towards achieving their goals – enabling us to think; learn; and work smarter.
Creating my future timeline forced me to confront the possibility that in 2064, if still alive, I will be 77 years old. Wow!
Prior to completing this exercise, I had a plan for the next 10 years of my life but, now, I know specifically what I would like to do for the next 30 years.
Although I acknowledge that my life may not turn out according to plan, my timeline is helping me to gain an extreme focus that improves my ability to see and ignore the things that are unimportant. As a way to increase your self-intelligence, I encourage you to create a future timeline by completing the following six steps:
Self-Intelligence
(1) List as many things as you can that relate to the following headings:
- People I believe will be part of my future
- Goals I want to achieve before I die
- Experiences I want to have in the future
- Places I want to live or see in the future
- Other events or thing that I will like to be a part of my future
(2) Project into the future and then complete a timeline, dividing it into five-year periods: 2012 to 2017, 2018 to 2023, 2024 to 2029 … and so on, until you reach the year where your age suggests you may die soon by natural causes.
(3) Transfer onto your timeline the things that you had listed in stage one, plotting within the five-year periods where you intend to achieve each item on your list.
(4) Look over your timeline and try to divide it into three to five stages where you think that a phase of your life will end, and a new one will begin.
(5) Create a short explanatory title for each stage of your timeline, and then write these titles above their actual stages.
(6) Write a title for your entire future on the top of your timeline, summarising what your life is about, and where you intend to be in the years to come.
After completing this exercise, Lazear advises you to post or hang-up your timeline where you will see it often, reviewing, and adjusting your plan every 3 months as your life changes.
Conclusion
As shown throughout this review, the importance of learning directly about intelligence cannot be overstated. By relying on education systems and reputable professions
Many people limit themselves, because they accept from others a limited understanding of what is possible.
If you can, do not let this happen to you. Instead, strive continuously to educate yourself, make better decisions, and live a smarter life. Read and study Lazear book, “OutSmart Yourself!” He teaches you how to improve all of your eight intelligences, immediately, and uncover your hidden potential.
Keep old ideas until better ones come along!
Until the next…
IVG
