Tag Archives: Increase IQ

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Are You A One-Banana Monkey?

One thing we humans are good at is efficiency.

We do it naturally without thinking.

We have to.

We need to put in effort to get calories (energy).

Meaning we need to spend energy to get energy.

Long long ago, way before we were humans, those inefficient animals were slowly weeded out of the gene pool.

Imagine, for example, there existed a species of monkeys that liked climbing trees.

And let’s say each time they climbed a tree it cost them 500 calories of energy.

At the top of these trees were a bunch of bananas.

Each banana gave them 300 calories.

Since these monkeys LOVED climbing trees, they only grabbed one banana each time.

So each trip they LOST 200 calories.

They SPENT 500 calories climbing the tree, but they RECEIVED only 300 calories.

That had a negative monkey ROI (return on investment).

These monkeys, needless to say, wouldn’t last very long.

On the other hand, monkeys with a built in efficiency instinct did.

They would spend the same 500 calories to climb the tree, but they would grab as many bananas as they could.

This is the same instinct that we use when clearing the table after dinner.

We don’t even think about it.

We just stack up as many dishes as we can, so we don’t have to make a hundred trips from the dining room to the kitchen.

(If you want to have some fun, have a dinner party and then clear the table by taking only ONE item to the kitchen on each trip. People will think you’re crazy!)

Many, many of our human functions are based on efficiency.

Especially our thinking patterns.

Our big brains take a TON of energy.

So anywhere we can find shortcuts, we’ll take them.

Sometimes, though, this works against us.

And it does in VERY insidious ways.

We humans think a bit differently about spending energy and getting energy.

We think in terms of money.

The money we make, and the money we spend.

And unfortunately, our thoughts on money are about as helpful as those goofy “one-banana” monkeys.

Why?

Because our money beliefs kill two birds with one stone.

Our leaders (political, religious, etc.) tell us money is “bad.”

But they don’t really believe it, since they have tons of money.

It’s just a clever idea so they can STAY “elite.”

Those that don’t have money tell us it’s “bad” as well.

Because if WE get money, and they don’t, they’ll feel bad.

WE believe money is “bad” because we don’t like thinking about.

So we’ve got TONS of people (including us) that think money is “bad.”

But before we humans invented money, life sucked.

No doctors, no air conditioning, no air travel, and no “anything else.”

But AFTER money was invented, BOOM!

All the cool stuff came.

And it’s still coming.

Money isn’t bad, money is FANTASTIC.

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Wealth Tuning

Brain Boy

How To Go Infinitely Meta

Being able to go meta is a good skill to have.

This is the main reason why couples go to counseling.

It’s not because the counselor has gone to an ultra-classified school where the true secrets of relationship success were revealed.

And by visiting these esteemed counselors, they find out the inside scoop on how to REALLY make a relationship work.

The reason people go to counselors is to have an independent (as much as that’s possible) third party keep things objective.

The counselor serves as the “meta” view of the relationship.

Sometimes, though, this is troubling. What if this “meta” view is biased?

A recent study showed that when people go to a medical doctor (who is supposed to know what’s what) and then get a second opinion, EIGHTY PERCENT of the time, the second opinion of the second doctor was different than the first.

But the ability to “go meta” in any way is helpful. If we had enough resources, we could get lots of “meta opinions” and then take an average of something.

Luckily, unless you have a strange lump and you can’t “go meta” on yourself, you CAN go meta in a lot of other situations.

This is a skill that you can practice.

For example, if you are talking to somebody, when it’s there turn to talk, try and see yourself from an objective third person position, while they are talking to you.

Many people do this without really thinking about it.

If you are the type to write yourself a “to do” list every morning, it’s kind of the same thing.

One view of yourself is the writer of the list. Then later in the day, you the, “fulfiller of the list,” is in a slightly different viewpoint.

(Of course, if you’re at the supermarket and you can’t read your writing, you can’t really call yourself to ask what you meant…)

One way being meta is very helpful is how you pick up data, information and skills.

You can approach the data, skills or information as the “learner.”

Or you can step back and see yourself as the “learner” while the “meta you” is learning how to learn.

This takes being your own coach to an entirely different level.

Most people don’t even think of terms of “learning how to learn.”

It’s one of those things we just “do.” Like walking and talking.

But as you well know, there’s spitting out a bunch of gibberish, and then there’s skillful communication, where you eloquently put together strings of words that can move people’s emotions on deep levels.

If you can do that by “learning how to talk” imagine what you can do when you learn how to learn.

Click Here To Learn How

Whole Brain Myth

Do You Want To Use Your Whole Brain?

When I was in High School, I loved reading the Far Side.

It was still published every day, and it was before those books became popular.

If you aren’t familiar, it was usually one goofy picture with a small caption.

Like a scientist who invented a device to understand what dogs were really saying.

And it had a picture with a dog, saying, “Hey! Hey! Hey!…”

Or one where a guy standing in front of an elevator that just opened. And in the elevator was a mama bear, and her cub. Only the only spot the guy could walk into was between them.

There was another one of two scientists in this laboratory, looking at another scientist, who was writing all kinds of complicated equations on the board. One scientist says to the other,

“I wish I could be more like him, he uses 50% of his brain!”

Of course, the idea that we only use 10% of our brain is not really true.

Sure, we never use all it at the same time. But that’s like our body. Sometimes we’re walking. Sometimes we’re sitting. Sometimes we’re using only our fingers. But we don’t say “humans only use 10% of our bodies” because that’s clearly ridiculous.

In fact, if you want to get a REAL workout, try doing some four-count-burpies. This is an exercise that uses a LOT of your muscles, and chances are you won’t last more than a couple minutes.

But here’s the thing. You CAN strengthen different parts of your bodies. You CAN become a world class juggler for example, and still ONLY USE 10 percent of your body at any given time.

You CAN train to do 1000 pushups in a few months. But you’ll still ONLY be using 10% of your body at any given time.

But so will some super lazy potato chip eater. If they NEVER exercise, they are also using 10% of their body at any given time.

So the question isn’t really, “how can I use more of my brain?” The question is, “How can I identify the parts of my brain that I want to use better, and how can I exercise them so I WILL use them better?”

The first question is, what do you want to do?

Become more creative?

Improve your memory?

Be able to solve problems more quickly?

Boost your general IQ?

You can do all of these, simply by doing the appropriate exercises.

Just like Jack Lalanne became super famous by doing a kajillion pushups, you can become famous by becoming a super genius.

Just start training, and never stop.

Get Started:
Intelligence Accelerator

Change Your Filters

Disprove The Elites

Once upon a time there was a family moving to a new town.

They passed some guy sitting on the side of the road on the way in.

They asked him, “How are the people in this town?”

He replied, “How were they in the last town?”

To which they answered, “Pretty nice.”

And he said, “Well, in this town they’re pretty nice too.”

Another family came by an hour later.

Asked the same question, to which he responded with the same answer.

“How were they in the last town?”

But this new family said, “Mean, dishonest, and shifty.”

And the guy said, “Well, I’m afraid they’re the same in this town.”

Of course, the moral of the story is your perceptions shape your world more than the world shapes your perceptions.

Most people won’t believe it until they see it.

But the secret is to believe it first, and then take action to FIND IT.

It’s not like saying some magic words will change reality.

But changing your filters will change how you view the world, which will HELP YOU so long as you’re willing to get out there and interact with the world to find what you want.

Rarely will somebody plop it into your lap without any effort. Sure, it happens sometimes, but it’s not the best strategy.

Another way to describe this is a “self-fulfilling prophecy.” As you think, so shall you see.

One of the many, many ways this manifests is the idea of intelligence.

“Scientists” for years have been telling us that its “genetic.” So what do they do? They LOOK for genetic proof to verify their theories.

One of the reasons this “meme” continues to exist is that generally speaking, scientists are pretty smart.

So if they PROVE that their “intelligence” is genetic, it’s like they are genetically programmed to be some elite intellectual that can tell us “how it is.”

But what happens if you look for evidence that you can BUILD INTELLIGENCE just like you can build muscles?

If you’re looking for red cars, you’ll find red cars.

If you’re looking for evidence that intelligence can be increased, you’ll find that as well.

Not just intelligence, but creativity. Problem solving. Memory.

All of these are SKILLS. Not gifts only given to the few “elites.”

And just like any other skill, the more you practice, the better you’ll get.

(Just don’t tell the scientists).

Get Started:

Intelligence Accelerator

How To Read Situations

How To Read Situations

I watched this interesting movie the other night.

About this kid that wanted to be a chess superhero.

He idolized Bobby Fisher. It was based on a true story.

He had two teachers. One guy who was a pure academic. Pure theory. Rigorous.

Another teacher played speed chess in the park.

Now, both had their merits. But there was a telling scene.

They were watching the kid playing in some tournament, in the championship match.

They had to watch on closed circuit TV so they wouldn’t be able to give them any advice.

The “street” player knew he won before anybody else did.

Thirteen moves before he actually won.

Being a “street” player, he could “read” the board a lot easier.

Being able to read situations is a HUGE skill to have. One that most people DON’T have.

Most people hang around, something HUGE happens, and they stand their scratching their head.

“Wow. Didn’t see THAT coming!”

One of the biggest coups in modern history came when somebody was able to “read” a situation FASTER than everybody else.

The Battle of Waterloo.

One of the Rothchild’s knew the outcome before everybody else. And leveraged it to the hilt.

Buying all the debt of the Bank of England for PENNIES.

Regardless of whether you care to notice or not, there’s always TONS more going on that most people will EVER realize.

Just below the surface of every conversation. Every interaction.

If you take the time to get out of your head, and simply OBSERVE what’s going on around you, you’ll be able to see a TON of information.

Who’s mad at whom. Who’s interested in whom. Who’s going to go home with whom.

This works in a boardroom as well as in a bar.

Even watching history unfold.

Most people are WILLFULLY ignorant. Too worried to know what’s really going on.

But you don’t HAVE to be.

You can increase your skills of understanding. Of perception. Of awareness.

Be able to read situations like a book. See moves WAY ahead of time.

You’ll be able to fix your relationship before it blows up in your face. You’ll see a problem, and then a second later come up with five or ten different ways to solve it.

You’ll spend your time wondering, rather than worrying. Dreaming rather than fretting.

You’ll look out into your future and see a MASSIVE collection of opportunities, just waiting to happen.

REGARDLESS of what the economy is like.

This is a skill. One that few people have. And it will take time to develop.

Are you willing?

Learn More:

Intelligence Accelerator

How To Increase Your Brain Muscle

Build Your Brain Muscle

What do you see when you are walking down the street and you see guy with MASSIVE muscles?

One thing I like about science is it lets us predict things that USED to be left up to chance.

Imagine you were some hunter gatherer and you had no idea how to grow stuff.

You just knew that some plants grew over here, and others grew over there.

You didn’t know anything about seeds, or soil or water.

Then somebody decided to plant something and wait to see what would happen.

Probably took a while, which is why the agricultural revolution took so long to spread across the planet.

But once people started repeating the process, and doing it over and over, it became less mystical, and more scientific.

This seed in this dirt will yield this tree with this fruit.

Every. Single. Time.

I’m sure you’ve heard the saying any kind of science or technology that is sufficiently above a certain society will be treated like magic.

And those early cavemen probably thought that growing an apple tree was some kind of voodoo.

Of course, now we know EXACTLY how it works. What kind of dirt you need, how much and how often to water, etc.

Meanwhile, back at that bodybuilder.

His muscles are JUST LIKE that apple tree. It’s not that some guys are born with muscles and some aren’t.

It’s just that some MAKE THE DECISION to go the gym, eat the right foods, get the right amount of sleep.

If you did the SAME workout that muscle guy did, you’d get the same results. Not the EXACT same results, but within the constraints of your own genetic makeup, your muscles WOULD get bigger.

This is not magic, this is science.

Same when you see a guy juggling on YouTube. You don’t think, “Wow, he must have some really good juggling genetics to be able to do that!”

Most people simply assume he or she spent a LOT of practicing.

If you spent an HOUR a day practicing to juggle, in six months you could impress people at EVERY PARTY you went to.

Unfortunately, a lot of people think this about intelligence. About creativity. About problem solving skills.

Luckily, they are SKILLS just like any other skill.

You can build your brain JUST AS EASILY as you can build your muscles.

Of course, it’s not magic. But neither is losing weight, or building muscles, or growing apple trees.

You do the RIGHT THINGS in the RIGHT ORDER and you WILL get the same results.

Learn How:

Intelligence Accelerator