Ditch a Toxic Mindset About Your Intelligence
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It’s time to retire this phrase:
“I’m not that smart.”
There are so many different kinds of intelligence. One definition of intelligence is the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional intelligence, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving.
I cringe to ever hear someone say that they’re not very smart because they don’t know how to do something or aren’t skilled at something like crossword puzzles, for example. There are so many types of intelligence and everyone is likely very smart in some capacity. I’m here to tell you that you are intelligent, and it’s likely that you’re smart in a number of ways that aren’t the most commonly recognized.
Here is a number of different examples and forms of intelligence:
The ability to solve puzzles — games, crosswords, sudoku, etc.
Empathy and the ability to read and understand other people’s emotions
Spacial reasoning and the ability to design layouts, construct blueprints, and even pack a car filled with boxes
Abstract creativity — the ability to understand things conceptually, or create and learn music, visual arts
Linguistic: the ability to learn and speak different languages, and having a large vocabulary
Understanding interpersonal relationships and psychology; why people make the choices they do
The ability to think strategically — seeing and predicting outcomes of actions
The ability to reason and creatively problem-solve
The ability to build, repair, and take things apart and understand how they work
Memorization and the ability to recall facts and information
This is a non-exhaustive list of just a handful of ways that people can be intelligent. And yes, of course, you won’t be wildly intelligent in every single category, but you are definitely very intelligent.
Using myself as an example.
I am someone who has a hard time fixing or building things. I am not particularly crafty. If the washing machine is broken, I won’t be the one to figure out how to fix it — that’s just not me.
But understanding how to build a business, and leadership, and anything strategic from puzzles and games to planning projects are things that come naturally to me. And I try to value that in myself, because not everyone shares those same abilities as I do - and vice versa.
Give yourself credit for the ways that you’re intelligent.
Intelligence is diverse.
We are diverse and dynamic as humans, There might be certain things that are more of a struggle for you to ‘get’, and that’s okay.
On the other hand, there are areas that you are naturally very gifted at that many others can’t even comprehend or would have to struggle for years to obtain the amount of intelligence and understanding that is just intrinsic and second nature to you.
And of course, if you’re not born inherently great at something, you can always learn and improve. Any areas that you want to have more skill or knowledge in are available and possible. To have a growth mindset surrounding this is so important because it will allow you to grow even in ways that might naturally be challenging to you.
Final thoughts
If there’s one thing you take away from this, please retire the phrase “I’m not that smart”. You are smart in many ways, just not ALL of them.
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This article was created by Galen Emanuele for the #culturedrop. Free leadership and team culture content in less than 5 minutes a week. Check out the rest of this month's content and subscribe to the Culture Drop at https://bit.ly/culturedrop