Ways to Become Smarter Than You Think
How do you empower your mind? In his book “Smarter Than You Think”, technology journalist Clive Thompson shares some interesting insights that can help you become smarter than you think.
1) Spend some time offline. If you find yourself checking emails whilst attending your friend’s wedding, you most probably need a digital detox. Staying online 24/7 can give you burnout, which in turn affect your mental abilities. During weekends, try to disengage from your emails, as well as from the social media. In his research, Thompson discovered that people experience clearer thinking if they spend their weekends away from their devices.
2) Practise social thinking. Learning does not end within the boundaries of your mind alone. You can learn a lot of things from other resources as well, especially from other people. This is why brainstorming works. Here’s the thing, we can acquire a lot of insights and knowledge from experienced people. Whether it’s going out to meet new friends or attending seminars and workshops, social thinking can really help us become smarter.
3) Do something mentally different. Thompson said – the reason why we get ideas in the shower is because we’re not working and our bodies are doing something totally different. It really pays to do away from our normal routine once in a while and explore other things. You need travel to faraway places to reap the benefits of doing something different. Adding a sense of diversity in your day to day life is a good strategy. Try taking a different route to work, play a new sport, or learn a new language. This is a great mental practice that will boost your creativity and problem-solving skills.
4) Find your passion. This is another way to enhance your memory and creativity. As they say, passion is what drives memory. That’s why in business, they always tell you to invest on something you are passionate about. Because when you do, there’s a great chance that you could come up with new ideas that could earn you millions. It doesn’t matter if your job is far different from your passion. What’s important is that you give yourself time to pursue it. Some people is passionate about baking, others in writing, composing songs, sketching, etc. Doing something you really want is one way to de-stress, recharge and make your life happier.
5) Know when or when not to rely on outsourced intelligence. The digital world has uncovered endless of possibilities. Today, we can get information in just one click (that means we need not go to the public library), we can cook spaghetti without having to make the sauce from scratch (just open the can and pour the sauce), operate a car without actually driving it, and so on. These are forms of outsourced intelligence. What’s so good about them is that they save us a lot of time and stress. But what do you do if a bug gets into your computer or the entire internet system in your local area went down? What if the store ran out of canned spaghetti sauce? And what if on your way to work your driverless car stops working? There’s nothing wrong with taking advantage of what the digital technology has to offer. But we also need to know when or when not to rely on them. It’s helpful to learn things the hard way and take shortcuts just when necessary.
6) Be flexible with your thinking strategies. Be mindful of your learning strategies and identify which are most helpful or effective for you. When reading a book, some people find it more useful to take down notes or highlight certain phrases or paragraphs using coloured pens, whilst others make an outline of their new learning. Our mind is more flexible than we think. You can even incorporate new learning techniques into your daily habit.
Learning is a process. And the good thing is, everyday, we can do something to enrich our mental abilities and be smarter than we were yesterday.
©Copyright 2013 by http://www.naturaltherapyforall.com Hypnotherapy Derby All Rights Reserved.