8 Simple Hacks for Being Smart

You already are smart. Being smart is not something you are, it’s something you do.

Okay, sure. Some people are born smart. They have huge IQ’s. They do good in school, they score big on tests. Whether they lucked out in the gene pool or just figured it all out somehow, now they are smart.

Being smart usually means having a high IQ. But being smart can mean other things.

You could be creative, that’s a type of “smart.”

You could be great at a sport. That’s another type of smart.

Maybe you’re really good at fixing things, baking cooking, knitting or painting. If you’re good at any of those, or any of a million other things, you’re “smart,” and don’t let anyone tell you any different.

So what do I mean by “being smart?”

If you want to do well in school, college, a job or career, life, love, family, relationships; you can.

You can be “smart,” act smart, look smart; all you have to do is follow a few simple rules.

For most of us, smart is not something we are, it’s something you do.

So let’s do it.

1. Never say “no.” Okay, there are obvious times when “No” is a good word to use. I’m sure you can think of many examples. But what I mean here is when someone tells you something new, when they are talking about something you’ve never heard before or they are speaking about something you disagree with or don’t believe in. Don’t say “No.” Say “How?”

“How?” How could that be? How could that happen? How could that work? How could that be possible? By asking these “how” questions, you open your mind up to seeing, feeling and realizing other possibilities. Your mind will expand (you’ll be getting “smarter”) and as a result, your world will too.

2. Don’t believe anything anyone tells you, especially any sort of authority figure.

Okay. This may seem like a contradiction of #1 above. It isn’t. #2 expands (that word again — “expands”) on number 1 above.

Instead of accepting what people, or social media or the nightly news or daytime or nighttime opinion shows are telling you at face value, question it.

Don’t just accept it. Ask yourself if it could be true. Ask yourself; “what if the opposite thing were possible?” “What if the opposite thing were true?”

Compare what they said with information and data you already know is true.

Does it fit? Does what they told you fit in with what you already know is fact?

If any part of it doesn’t seem “right,” or if any part of it just doesn’t fit in with those things you already know are true, hold that thing in doubt. Go back to number 1 and ask “How?” How could it be true? How could it work?

3. Experience. The world is a big place. If you want to be smart, if you want to expand your mind, you literally have to expand your horizons.

Go to places you’ve never been. Observe people, everywhere. Listen to people, everywhere. No, don’t be a stalker, but just allow yourself to hear other people when they speak about things. And as they talk, go through #1 and #2 above.

4. Read. A lot. This may seem quaint and old-fashioned in this digital world of texts and “tweets” and posts, Facebook quizzes and smartphone games, but reading is accumulated knowledge, accumulated wisdom of people who have been there, done that and lived to tell about it.

It isn’t necessary to buy a book; a Kindle or ebook will work. You can even get an audio book or watch a webinar, TV series or documentary. Absorb information, absorb data and then process it using steps 1 and 2 above.

5. Be friendly, make friends. Most people on this planet just basically want the same things; to have a good job with decent pay, to have good friends, to be safe, to go home at night safely and securely, to have someone they can lean on when things get tough, to be able to talk with someone they trust, to love and be loved.

People aren’t all that different on the inside. Their blood is red, their sky is blue and they have pretty much the same hopes and dreams as you do. Where people are different is in the things they have been through, the life they have experienced, the obstacles and challenges they have confronted and beaten, the times they have succeeded and the times they have failed.

This is what makes people different. And it is this and the culture they grew up in that makes them — and the world — fascinating.

The more people you meet, the more you’ll realize we are all just really the same, it’s just the journey that is different.

6. Stop, look and listen. My mom and dad told me to do this when I was a kid and I came up to a road. Later I learned it in driver’s ed class when we drove up to a railroad crossing. Stop, look and listen. Good advice. So how does it work?

Rush, rush, rush. Welcome to the rat race, welcome to the world of work and careers and getting ahead. Welcome to working hard to get that promotion and working harder when you get it. Welcome to the world of arriving early at work and staying late, at missing weddings, recitals, sports events, birthdays, anniversaries, those infrequent moments with a special someone, those times when you should have been there but you couldn’t because you had to work.

STOP.

Stop all that.

When you’re lying there in your casket do you think it would be better if someone said “Wow, they made a lot of money” or “Wow, they really loved me?” Do you think it would be better if they said “Wow, they had such a nice car” or “Wow, they sure made a big difference in my life?” What if they said “They sure worked hard, they worked a lot of hours,” or, “They helped me when no one else could.” Which is better?

You don’t make a difference in people’s lives by spending your life at work, you make a difference in people’s lives by being there.

Look.

People look but they don’t see.

To turn a “look” into a “see” means you have to do some thinking.

You have to observe the world and the people in it. You have to see the exchanges and interactions between people. You have to go beyond the common to see the cause.

You can only find the answers when you ask the right questions and the first step of that is to see the world as it is, not as you think it is, not as you have been told it is, not as you believe it is and especially not what you fear. Fear will stop you dead in your tracks to getting smart — and that’s called being dumb. Don’t be dumb.

See people. See people and where they have been, because only then can you see people for who they could be. See the world for what it is and not as you have been taught (#1 and #2 above), and only then will you find that, just maybe, what you’ve been looking for has been here all along.

Listen.

Everyone has problems, everyone has a story — and everyone has a solution.

Every person who has ever lived has faced life with all its joys and challenges, with all its tragedies and triumphs and with all its ups and downs; and somehow, they are still here to tell about it. Maybe you’re one of them.

But where you get smart is by listening to these stories, by listening to their life, by extracting their experience and applying it to situations you may confront or be in. The human experience is a miracle filled with mistakes, fulfillment filled with failure and a mess that becomes a message. Take those miracles and mistakes and messes and messages and weave them into your own experience and watch how smart you become.

7. Read the questions before you read the book.

That’s both literal and a metaphor.

If faced with a test or challenge or experience in which the questions are known beforehand, read the questions first, before you read the book, or chapter or manual.

Do this consistently and you will be able to answer most of the questions as you read through your assignment.

The metaphor.

Life is a question looking for an answer.

Your life is a question looking for an answer.

You may think you have already found the answer and if that’s true, I hope you have found peace of mind and love as well. All those usually come together.

But if you’re still looking for the answers — or if your life falls apart — again, go back and read the questions.

This is how it works.

Write down each area of your life that isn’t working. Write down your obstacles and challenges. Write down where your relationships are failing, write about your sucky job, write about your sucky friends or your miserable life.

Write down every place and thing in your life that just isn’t working; that could be better.

And don’t try to find an answer.

Read the book.

What? What book?

The book of life. Your life. And the book you read is all the steps you’ve just read about above. Do all these steps and not only will your friends start looking better and become better friends, you just might get a little smarter too.

8. Fill in the blank.

It’s your turn.

You are someone special.

And I don’t mean that the way your mother’s friend said it about that kid in your class in grammar school.

No. You are a human being with a unique experience and the world needs you.

All you have to do is fill in the blanks.

The blanks are the things you don’t know.

They are the things you don’t know that you don’t know.

The blanks are the places where things are falling apart even though you’ve tried your best.

The blanks are those things about you that bother you the most.

And they are the things in your world that you know could be better.

It’s your turn.

It’s your turn to get out of work early to take that special someone on a romantic date.

It’s your turn to take a few hours off from work to spend time with your friends.

It’s your turn to take a day off and take your kids or best friends on a hike or spend a day at the beach, the aquarium or DisneyWorld.

It’s your turn to be smart.

Smart isn’t something you are, it’s something you do.

And it’s your turn.

Stop, look, listen. Apply the steps above, travel the world, experience life, jump into the world, the craziness and madness full throttle.

Don’t turn back, don’t look back and don’t regret.

Yes, it’s scary. Yes, you will have your doubts and moments of panic, pain, frustration and anger.

But you don’t get smart by avoiding these things. You get smart by going through these things.

You get smart by experiencing everything life can throw at you and then coming out the other side and saying, “yeah.”

You get smart by learning from your mistakes and the mistakes and experiences of others, and then turning around to help someone else on their path.

You get smart by learning how to love life because you are doing all those things that terrify you.

You get smart by learning how to love your friends and family and neighbors and even your enemies, because you have learned how to love yourself most of all.

And you do all this because, YOU DO ALL THIS.

Being smart isn’t something you are, it’s something you do.