New beginnings that matter

As the end of the year draws closer, we all look forward to new beginnings, and new plans.

A key purchase in this endeavour is that coveted diary where we can scribe our goals for the next year.

The first entry being your “NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS”, The most common resolution of all being the same old drab weight loss plan or diet list, a resolution that never seems to make it past the New Years Eve party.

I believe it’s time that list was changed. This year instead of losing weight, I want to gain some intelligence!

 Surprising? 

Allow me to explain, we all live in the notion that we are the pinnacle of intellect and we harbour this delusion by assuming we have it all.

However, we don’t.

We keep develop our IQ by reading, training and interacting with people. And when we know one subject well enough on the surface in the domain we call ourselves an SME i.e. a subject matter expert.

What we know in the world conversely is miniscule compared to the knowledge yet to be uncovered.

The things we believe we know are simply the tip of the iceberg, what’s left under the depth of the cold dark water yet to be seen, In the Land Mark Forum this area is known as your blind spot.

 Fuelled by our hubris we often undermine or worse yet overlook these blind spots and that leads to our downfall.

According to an American developmental psychologist, Howard Gardener, there are 9 types of intelligence.

·      Naturalist : Nature smart, who has green thumb and who can do the horse whisper and dog training

·      Musical : sound smart, who can create music, play and understand and enjoy the music and rhythm

·      Logical-mathematical : number/reasoning smart, analytical and who is logical always

·      Existential : life smart, who can manage people inspire and lead as they are master of art of living

·      Interpersonal : people smart, who can understand people, know people, manage people and inspire people to success, works as a healer.

·      Bodily-kinaesthetic : body smart, Gymnastics , sportsmen and classical dancers and actors and actresses who can bring feeling and emotions on their face.

·      Linguistic : word smart, lyrics writers and people who can bring the story for you in few effective words

·      Intra-personal : self-smart, one who can manage self-emotions and self-branding, and most of enlightened souls fall in this category as they have reached to the stage of enlightening by introspecting and finding that space.

·      Spatial: picture smart, who can paint, draw make sculptors and any form of art like even tribal arts.

While it’s easy to read lists such as this and acknowledge the various types of intelligence, unfortunately the society of today seems to create a special emphasis on the recognition of subject based of academic intellect.

Researchers analysed Mensa members with high IQs (over 130) and found that those with high intelligence, are at significantly greater risk for the examined psychological disorders.

According to IFL Science, A study examined 3,715 members of American Mensa and found that around 20% had an anxiety disorder – double the figure for the population at large.

The researchers believe that the heightened perceptions of intelligent people may in fact predispose them to certain psychological disorders.

Therefore one must ease up on the pursuit to become a domain expert and knowing it all, and should instead venture in to expanding a different area of intelligence.

Researchers say that this acts as a balancing act and helps release the stress giving you a sense of completion.

If you are C level executive in an organization, try out a dance class for few days and see how odd and silly the steps look. Try colouring a Mandala with colour pencils and crayons, it’s also known to unleash your hidden potentials and can be quite therapeutic too. Take a dog or just yourself out for a long walk or take up gardening and start your own organic vegetable patch. Sing a karaoke version of your old favourite song at home or in a crowded bar.

 I am sure these activities will certainly help put life into perspective as you step out of the experts table into the beginners’ row.

As you start to get a grip of all these other areas of intelligence, you tend to unleash new potentials you may have never known you had and begin to shed all the stress and unwanted weight that you tend to carry upon your shoulders.

So, my New Year’s resolution is to capture some wonderful pictures from my phone camera while on an unplanned trip, learn some dance moves and start my own spice and veggie garden.

That is the intelligence I plan to develop.

What about you?

Data From:

 https://metro.co.uk/2017/10/17/if-you-have-a-high-iq-youre-more-prone-to-mental-illness-study-finds-7006150/?ito=cbshare

Howard Gardner’s official website contains links to scientific papers