What is the difference between knowledge and wisdom? And why does it matter? How important is experience in our personal journey through life? In this latest addition of The Inspired we cover our top 10 ways to get smarter today:
Top 10 Ways to Get Smarter Today:
1. Turn off your social media alerts. Except Quora.com.
2. Focus on your motivations. What drives you? Be honest.
3. Evaluate what is missing in your life? Is it really missing? Ask why?
Once you've thought about those questions above, incorporate The Inspired.com’s equation to increasing your smarts which we'll get to below. The formula, as you'll find, is a simple one, but comes with many inputs:
4. Inspired Foundations - Health, Love, Friendships, Community, and Internal Dialogue form our foundations required before we can take on more knowledge. Without a healthy body and mind we can move nowhere. Practice good health, sleep 8 hours per day, drink less, put whole foods in your body, and visit with friends and family often, exercise, regularly. Be a good neighbour, build your community. Practice a healthy internal dialogue
5. Educate yourself in the things that matter to you. Learn in the books you read, or the podcasts you listen to. Know them, discuss them, embrace them until they become the habits and rules that form your life. Go to places like Goodreads for lists on the best books ever written and buy them, or get copies at your local library. Listen to podcasts like Tim Ferris or Joe Rogan to expand your mind on topics you might know little about.
6. Experience what you study. Without experiences, what you study, what you educate yourself in, will only ever remain a philosophy. Abstract ideas that need proofs, practice, trails and errors. Imagine if you studied all the countries in the world, their cultures, their foods, but never left your home, experiencing the sights and sounds with your own eyes. You’d be a philosopher of worlds, but have wisdom in none.
Therefore, our key to TRUE Knowledge, Intelligence, Smarts is this equation:
Inspired Foundations + Education + Experience = Wisdom
7. Practice Wisdom, take care of your foundations, learn about things you've love to try or experience, and then put that new found knowledge into action. Watch and see where it takes you.
But don’t forget these pieces:
8. Practice Gratitude - be thankful for what you DO have. List 5 things each day before you start your day as you lay in bed in the morning, or while you're taking your shower, or brushing your teeth in the morning. Or recite the list to yourself on your way to the office. It will only take a minute, or even less, but by practicing gratitude, your triggering your active brain, your prefrontal cortex, to remove you from autopilot, and the stresses that might be building in your mind. Try it for one week and see the world in a new lens. There's is so much we all have to be thankful for. I wrote a blog on this topic recently worth checking out.
9. Practice Meditation regularly - just 10 mins per day, before going to sleep at night, has the power to change your life. There are many great apps that can help you get started. I've tried the app called Headspace, and it's a great place to start. A good friend just told me about Sam Harris' meditation app called Waking Up, also worth looking into. You should be able to find plenty more for free, so shop around if you're asked to purchase any additional services.
10. Be kind to others - Hold a door open for a stranger. Be the first one to smile, or to do something kind in your interactions with people throughout your day. Life is what we make it. Don’t wait for someone else to take the lead. We only get this one life, and there are others out there that could use a little help, your help, today. Even if it just starts with a small act of kindness.
I hope this helped someone out there.
For more topics on life including life and career advice, visit us at The-Inspired.com, or our categories page.
Goran Yerkovich
