18 May 2007
Successful Intentions Newsletter
Hi ,
It's not how smart you are, it's what you do with it that counts.
Just because the person next to you has an IQ of 1001 and you have trouble adding and subtracting at the check-out counter doesn't mean you're a failure (although just because it's the economy pack doesn't always mean it's cheaper !). You're actually a lot smarter than you think you are.
And there are 5 things you can do (below) to keep it that way!
Remember those IQ assessments you did at school? Or the battery of psych tests you did to get that high-powered position? There was always someone else who got 99%, right? No matter how smart you think you are, there's always someone else who's smarter.
But guess what? It turns out that age and cunning actually does beat youth and speed in the end! You see, it all depends on where you are in the lifespan scheme of things. The abilities measured by IQ tests such as reasoning, spatial orientation, and perceptual speed are at their peak in early adulthood. This is what's referred to as Fluid Intelligence. It's our basic information processing hardware. To some degree, you've either got it or you haven't.
Fluid intelligence is mechanical and biological. For that reason it's vulnerable to loss as the brain ages. In fact we experience a steady decline in these faculties during adulthood.
But the more pragmatic abilities, such as verbal knowledge, and certain aspects of numerical ability are generally maintained throughout the lifespan and may actually increase! This is called Crystallized Intelligence. It's associated with acquired knowledge gained from life experience, mediated through culture, and puts you in a much better position to handle difficult and complex decisions compared with the Gen Y super star in the next office!
Here are 5 things you can do to make sure you're getting the most from your Crystallized Intelligence:
- Keep up to date with factual knowledge about life events, life matters, and be prepared to explore a range of issues with scope and depth.
- Broaden your procedural knowledge about making decisions by applying different strategies (e.g., cost-benefit analysis, means-ends analysis) before arriving at any conclusions.
- Consider the past, current, and possible future contexts of life and how they relate to each other in any significant issue or decision you might be facing.
- Recognize variations in values and life priorities and be prepared to see each person within his/her own framework of values and life goals.
- Acknowledge the inherent uncertainty of life and explore ways of dealing with uncertainty (e.g., back-up planning, optimizing gain/loss ratio).
| "And in knowing that you know nothing, that makes you the smartest of all". Socrates, Greek philosopher in Athens (469 BC - 399 BC) |
Keep your intentions clear,
Peter Webb
Home
| Manage subscription (Unsubscribe, change e-mail, text only)
