The questioning of our own intelligence is not an unpracticed thing. Situations occur and things are said at some point in our life that prompts us to ask this ominously fearful, incredibly daunting question: AM I INTELLIGENT?
Intelligence is one of the most widespread scales used to determine the worth of a human being in this world. So when we question it in ourselves, one could say that we are fearfully trying to measure our very worth off. Now perhaps the darkest downfall of a quick conclusion (or should we say assumption?) here is the sense that we’re possibly stupid, based on what we view as intelligence and whether we meet the mark or not.
I want to highlight the ‘how’ we have put in our title here, as this takes us in a totally different direction. Asking this question by saying, “how am I intelligent?” takes us away from the quick conclusion and instead creates a good problem for us to solve. Rather than questioning if we are intelligent, we are asking, in what way?
And when we ask it like that, it opens up some positive stances towards this train of thought:
– Automatically notions that you are intelligent in some way – you just have to discover where! It wipes out the belief that you are completely unintelligent (which isn’t true) and changes how you approach the question.
– Leads us to celebrate diversity and abundance. Because here intelligence is seen as plural rather than singular. There are innumerable ways of describing and defining intelligence and therefore we cannot fairly define it around a specific standard of IQ.
– Moves us in the direction of our strengths. Usually, where our strengths lie is where our intelligence lies too. When we are able to focus on our strengths rather than weaknesses we begin to move into very mature places of understanding ourselves.
– It is a catalyst for healthy relationships. How much tension is caused by the feeling of stupidity or harsh comparisons? When you come from a place of equality and understanding that our talents are all diverse, it diminishes the very need for comparisons.
There are so many categories of intelligence that it would be hard to list them all. But below are a few examples of each to hopefully help you understand the grand diversity of them:
– Academic
– Emotional
– Personality strengths
– Memory
– Social
– Creative
– Spiritual
You see, for every one of these examples one would need to have a strong basis of knowledge, understanding and experience in that field for you to be good at it. In other words – you’d need to have that specific type of intelligence. Do you see where we’re going here? Intelligence can be found everywhere within ourselves!
Spend some time asking yourself the question of how you are intelligent and discover your strengths.
It’s a beautiful conversation to have with friends, too, and can open the door for some blooming of self-awareness and growth.