Increasing your "Effective Intelligence" ("EI")

(If you received this by email, click on the title of the post to see the entire post.)

I am repeating an excerpt from a prior post here and then adding some "instructions" that will increase the effective use of your intelligence:

Intelligence is the "natural" ability to learn or understand or deal with new or trying situations AND "the skilled use of reason" and "the ability to apply knowledge" in such a way as to create something better.  (You can, however, develop intelligence through learning the thinking processes so well that they become "instinctual" and "natural".)

Of course, natural ability if not used regularly and its application practiced will not get you far in life.
We have seen example after example where high intelligence gets some people nowhere.  And, per some studies, if one languishes, the highly intelligent are just more able to devise "reasons why not" (i.e. excuses, justifications...) and are thus able to do a better job of keeping themselves stuck!

If one seldom applies and exercise that intelligence, one will not benefit much from it. (Duh!)

If one gets stuck in a disabling rut, one can become stuck in being a "life nerd" (smart in a few things, but not in life and in perspective) who bumbles along in life or in a concept of self that has one in a constant state of anxiety (which, from evolution, causes one's brain to shut down, at least to some extent, and thus not be able to function intelligently).  The nerd has to have the good fortune to run across something that causes him to want to learn life and to do it in a systematic way.  The anxious one needs to be fortunate enough to have an "intervention" that he takes seriously such that he is motivated to seek to learn emotional intelligence/competency and how to alter his beliefs to align with reality - here he is, a very intelligent person, but stuck in an unexamined irreality!!!!  (People who live lives that are unexamined will be burdened with false beliefs that will hinder their lives ongoingly, for the rest of their lives.)  (See and understand The Unexamined Life Is Not Worth Living - Why?)

THE PURPOSE OF INTELLIGENCE IS...

Effective intelligence is all about creating the best effects in total "life value"..  

One can apply the intelligence to getting something done that has a one-time effect of high value now or to something that has lots of effects over time.  The person who makes the most progress in life identifies what has the best total effect over time and then does those!

One can be busy producing lots of smart projects that are well done OR one can cut down on those smart projects of high value in order to focus on things of even higher value!  (That is what all of the most successful people in life do!)

Of course one has to know what is of higher value, and to do that one must sit down and think intelligently about it and intelligently choose.  Indeed, one of the items that is of higher value is learning a better way of choosing what is best.   If one is able to choose what is best for his/her life, then one can avoid the wasted time and effort of bad choices or choices of lesser benefit - and then use that time for much greater benefit.  (You can jump off of what I've already created for myself, and for you:  The Highest Value Activities In Life - Harvesting The Golden Eggs AND Enabling The Golden Goose, and, of course, learn what Life Value is...)

THE RULES, THE STEPS

The rules are simple:

1.  Verify facts (and/or use someone who has already verified the facts)

2.  Determine the reasoning and logic to see if the effects are correctly determined.

"The way to" effective intelligence is

1.  Apply the simple rules above (use the Effective Thinking techniques)

2.  Do that which leverages one's ability to act intelligently, so that one exponentially gains in effective intelligence (i.e. in effectiveness in life).  

Learn more about what reasoning is (and be sure to see that "emotional reasoning" is an oxymoron, one that can be very damaging or at least misleading) and learn what are the thinking errors that we humans are prone to - and eliminate them totally, forever, from your life, to create a much greater life!

Pick the best sources of good thinking and conclusions (and determine for yourself if the sources are logical or just emotional) so that you don't have to engage in massive efforts to learn the details necessary to be an expert in the field!  It is not wise, in my opinion, at least in establishing initial foundations, to read books that require one to make their own conclusions or to fill in the blanks.  it is best to use models, mentors, books, courses, and such that actually provide the answers and the related logic, so that you can determine what is sensible and get on to implementing it as soon as possible.

(Most philosophers seem to be stuck in the questioning mode and forget to do enough of the "getting the answers" mode.  Many books have great concepts but little guidance to how to connect the dots to actually get something done.  Avoid those initially and use more "how to" books!  Some of the best books are written for "idiots" or "dummies", which is often where we have to start and work up from there. )

Bon voyage!