Being Smart is not something you might recognize within yourself at first. However, there are multiple shared actions taken by Smart people that prove to you that it is within you.
Now, to make things clear, I am no expert and I have not studied neuroscience. None of the things I will mention is backed by science, even though it might be, but I didn’t do any research specifically for it.
My arguments are based off of patterns and data that I have gathered, found and tested.
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Let’s begin,
There are two sides of being Smart, and they’re pretty straight forward.
Positive, and Negative.
Let’s start with the Positive.
The Benefit of being Smart is firstly noticed in the ability of Analysis and Understanding. You mind is capable of receiving information well and is able to split it according to specific criteria that help you understand and memorize the data received.
This ability of Analysis is proven to be extremely needed in fields such as Data Analysis, Management and Leadership Roles within companies.
Another factor that displays Smartness, is the fact that you allow yourself to spend time thinking.
Whether you’re analyzing people, a problem you’ve faced, or even remembering a situation that remained unsolved or where the result of the situation didn’t please you. This can even go to problems and events that occurred decades ago.
This ability is both a superpower and a huge problem. That is what makes being Smart a two-sided tool/criteria.
Another point that displays Smartness and Intelligence, is the ability to release creativity when left alone, and bored.
You might be Smart, but you might never know it because your phone takes the entirety of your time!
Try remaining disconnected from the world for 3 hours straight, both on the internet and in real life, and witness how your mind creates a world to entertain you and fulfill you.
You’ve just given your mind room to talk again.
Most of Smart people don’t allow their minds to talk, even though almost each and every one of them thinks their mind is a negative thinker. They tend to believe that their minds are the source of their depression and anxiety. While the truth is that, your mind is only negative because you don’t allow it to talk!
Another criteria of being Smart, is the ability to self-reflect, self-talk, and self-humble.
You know, Smart people are most of the time, Extremely Unstable People!
One day they love themselves, because the night before they’ve talked to themselves in the mirror and said all the truths and decided to change everything.
While they could be the most depressed people on the next day because their impossible plan didn’t work in one day! Which is expected!
Smart people tend to have a huge ego, that they most likely won’t show because deep down they know, they’re Smart. They don’t need other peoples’ validation, thus they don’t need to brag!
However, since they don’t show their ego much, they tend to lean on becoming humble. So humble that they forget they’re Smart!
It’s an unending cycle of self-love and self-hatred.
The issue here is that Smart people tend to become hopeless easily.
They believe that since they’re Smart, their plans should function smoothly and quickly, and they tend to forget that effort is required.
They don’t consider effort much because they think they’re different, which they are, however there’s a missing loop!
Yes, your plan is more complex, efficient, effective, innovative, and overall better than everyone elses’ plan, however you can’t just realize it in the matter of days!
I mean, you just admitted to yourself that it’s way better and more complex, why would you expect it to magically function?
It takes time.
Everything great takes time.
Now, let’s talk about the last aspect that kills Smart people.
Laziness, and ELE, for “Easy Life Expectancy”.
“Oh yeah, I’m Smart, it should be easy for me!”
Nope! It’s the other way around!
You’re smart, it should be hard, you should prove to yourself that you can apply your intelligence.
The problems you face are much harder, than the average persons’ problems. Don’t expect them to be easily opened! You’ve seen nobody open them before! While other “Normal People” see you solve their LIFE PROBLEMS within seconds! =)
You expect yourself to over-perform in anything you enter, while you have no background!
How are you supposed to know something when you’ve never seen it, read about it, or tried it before?
Yeah you’re Smart, but you don’t know everything!
Don’t let your inner-ego lie to you!
Now, I will be talking about something that truly makes Smart people fall. Fall so deep they might never even recover from it.
Addiction.
Take the people that smoke in your friend group, and I am not talking about Vaping, I mean cigarettes and cigars, even other substances like Marijuana!
Are they similar to the rest of the friend group?
The answer will most likely be, No.
Those are Smart gems.
Smart people tend to fall into big addictions:
- Smoking
- Porn
- Alcohol
and they tend to do it excessively.
Their brain fools them into thinking they’ve done an achievement.
But why would they fool themselves you might ask?!
They need to be constantly working and making change in this lifetime.
Smart People cannot go a day without making a memory or a change in someone’s life or their own life.
That’s why you might see them often giving advice that is extremely valuable, while they’re doing the opposite of it!
“Don’t smoke, it’s an unending cycle that you might never quit. Indeed it might create a lot of beautiful memories and tighten friendships and relationships, but it’s not worth it” while a cigarette is lit in their mouths!
However, it was never this hopeless for Smart people.
Being Smart was never a negative thing.
The modern world has turned it into a problem.
Their attention span is so strong that they might remember every reel they’ve watched for 3 hours, while the average person might also scroll for 3 hours and not even remember the last reel.
They just want their mind to do something.
They want change, and they’re very comfortable with it.
While the average person prefers stability.
They crave praising from an achievement they’ve changed lives with it, because now they know they’ve impacted the world. Even if it’s only their friends!
Smart people are gems that should understand one major thing to fix their lives.
Limit.
Limit, is what makes Smart people operate properly and use their Intelligence properly.
Here’s a basic example that you can try on your Smart friends or even on yourself:
1) Give them a task to do, that is complex and is out of their knowledge reach, with no time limit, and tell them it’s urgent.
2) Give them a task to do, that is complex and is out of their knowledge reach, with a strict time limit, as a challenge and don’t tell them that it’s urgent.
Now,
In situation 1, the Smart friend will tell you that it’s possible and it’s feasible and they might even explain the entire process for you with the basic information and knowledge they have, but since you haven’t truly limited them and challenged them, they’ll take it lightly, even though you’ve told them it’s urgent.
However in Situation 2, they might just sit there for an hour, without moving an inch thinking about how to execute it, in the shortest time possible to impress you even further with their capabilities; and they’ll actually do it.
This displays that smart people only operate within boundaries and limits.
Now, to fix your own life as someone Smart, you need to restrict yourself. Not in the sense of not giving yourself freedom!
Set out rules, schedules, programs, books to read, fields to learn about, projects to build, skills to learn, money to earn, businesses to build, workout plans, a potential partner to get with, etc.
Plan your life.
Control it.
It’s the only thing you can control.
Once it’s yours, you have the world between your hands.
You’ll notice that the more you apply rules to your life and NEVER break your principles for ANYTHING or ANYONE, the better your life will become.
The more fulfilled, satisfied and peaceful your life will become.
After all, life is a question of balance.
Now, I challenge you, can you achieve an equilibrium in your life, via setting a lifestyle, and having new personally-set purposes to your life, within a month?
Prove your worthiness.
- Anas Dhifallah
This paper was written completely as a vent, and a way to visualize thinking. It has no set rules and information that you should base your knowledge around. This is just the result of a research and a personal conclusion.
Thank you for offering some of your time to read what I wrote! Much appreciated.