Hello fellow travelers,

Let’s have some words about what IQ and intelligence are.

Is it knowing what to do at the right time? Surely that’s experience. Is it the ability to remember things? Memory can be taught. Education? It certainly helps but a well educated person can be a complete dullard in a non academic situation.

Does age bring wisdom? Wisdom comes from experience if it is filtered. Is intelligence that filtering process, seeing the essence? Age, by itself, does not bring intelligence. Is aptitude the answer? Are we showing intelligence if we can readily adjust to various situations? An IQ test won’t show this.

If you breeze through the newspaper cryptic crossword every day, it only shows that you’re used to those answers. You’ve been doing it for a long time. Try another puzzle and it will take much longer. You may just have a large vocabulary. In the movie Rain Man, Dustin Hoffman played a savant (not really the right word but its definition is changing) with extraordinary natural memory and skill with numbers. Note “natural”. Is talent like this innate? Yes. Does environment play a part? Yes. Ah, the ‘nature v nurture’ debate, you say? No. It’s obvious that both play a role. What if Mozart grew up in the slums of Calcutta?

So can your innate intelligence be increased? No, but don’t lose hope. It can be developed. You can get far more from the wiring you already possess if you develop it! While you’re not increasing the hardware you can get the most from the software. Most people use their mind like a PC that is tuned to the net but only use the word processor and accounting charts.

How to develop it? Click your red shoes together three times after you say the magic word. If only…

It’s not that simple but it is a lot more fun. It involves exposure to a variety of stimulation, analysis (that filtering process), memory, marrying different ideas, flexibility, imagination, withholding judgment before results, honesty, listening to learn, getting baffled, recognition of a problem, treating life as a game, making quick decisions, um. I won’t go on.

One way to lead a satisfying life is to do what you want to do and make the necessary money doing it. There are two steps to this - identifying what you want and realizing your abilities. Strangely, a lot of people don’t know what they want to do! Do you really know? If you did, you’d be doing it. The first step leads to the second. Identify your abilities, your aptitude, where your innate talent lies. See the sign– Go This Way. It’s white lettering on a red background with an arrow. The arrow is angled upward.

“I want to be a paperback writer”, an actor, build a sales empire, teach, become governor, do research, whatever. Do you write well? Have you sold any writings? Can you do it? An actor – can you slip into a different personality easily, without sounding like you’re reading a script? Can it be sustained? Build a sales empire – do you sell easily, can you run a business, can you teach your talent? Teach – who, adults, children, the homeless? Where does your innate ability lie? Have you done any aptitude tests? Are you artistic or very logical? If you do it easily, you can probably make a living at it. Write a list of things you would like to do if money wasn’t a problem. It can be anything you want. Be playful with this list. Let any fancy fall onto the page. You must write it down, not leave it in your head. There’s the biro. Do it right now. Go on. I’ll wait.

You’ll find more ideas come to mind over the next few hours. Write these down as they come. The next step is to leave it for a day, then divide it into similar activities. If the majority concern dealing with people; why are you in accounting? Are they academic? Why are you a painter? Maybe physical interests; why sit behind a desk at work?

Now take action. Join an amateur theatre group or speakers’ club. Start an internet small business or write a detailed summary of your novel. If you’re going to do anything, you’ve got to start. You must let that innate talent out for your own happiness and the notice of others. You’ve got the battery and light so get connected. Shine.

• Like to easily remember names with faces? Mail “names” to iqadult@gmail.com It’s a free lesson.

THIS WEEKS’ PUZZLE.

You’ve heard of opera singers shattering glass with their voice. Science has proven that it can happen in strict circumstances, but is unlikely in everyday life. What is something that can be shattered just by any loud noise?

Answer to last weeks’ puzzle – 35 minuts early.

QUOTE. “I’ve never made a mistake in my life. I thought I did once but I was wrong.

Anon.

Jay Ross. Send your input. We’d like to hear from you.