Intelligence is a Result of Past Diligence

Everytime I get real busy, I will somehow have a lot of thoughts stirring in my mind. I will think about life and ask myself questions like ‘why did something turn out this way’. Although these thoughts aren’t new and most people have thought of it at least once, I still think that I should blog about it. There’s a simple reason for blogging about it: Sometimes we humans are just so oblivious to the most obvious.

Anyway, I think the topic of whether some people are born smarter than others is an interesting one. When it comes to my thoughts on this, I stand pretty firmly with the notion that, apart from the mentally-impaired, anyone can become more ‘intelligent’ than others. It’s all a matter of diligence. I’m probably going to get shot and criticized for even thinking about this, but it’s sincerely what I believe. Think about it, have you ever seen anyone who is smart but have never been diligent in any point of his/her life? If your answer is a yes, you are probably exploring the notion that a baby can understand quantum physics or medical science right from the moment of birth.

The fact is… humans progress from stage to stage and learn progressively, instead of immediately tackling tough subjects. There is no way that a person can immediately tackle something amazingly difficult right from birth, at least not that I know of. If there are any cases that you know of, they are probably the exceptions. Ignoring the exceptions at both extremes, all of us are about the same. If your peers learn faster than you, it’s very likely that at some point in his life, he had been diligent and built up a solid foundation in related subjects.

You may disagree, but I have read about so many cases of people who seem like social derelicts, yet they reach a turning point and suddenly become much ’smarter’. If they were born smart, they won’t have been regarded as social derelicts in the first place. If they were stupid, they won’t be able to suddenly become ’smarter’. One of the logical explanations is that they became more diligent, thus becoming ’smarter’. Therefore, I believe that Intelligence should not be regarded as a person’s quality, but rather as a measure of a person’s past diligence.

Of course, this is just a general rule and there are other factors that come into play such as focus. This is also another possible explanation for social derelicts to suddenly become smarter. After a certain event in their lives, these people found greater reasons to become motivated and focused on learning and becoming better. Whatever it is, I just urge you to explore the paradigm that we are in control of our own lives and not controlled by birth. Is it definitely right? I don’t know, but I’m sure that with this mindset, it’s definitely much more empowering. We can’t find excuses when things don’t go well, since everything is attributed to ourselves.

Through time, we will reflect on our own actions more and most probably know how to improve ourselves. How do we improve if in the first place, we think that we are not intelligent and it’s beyond our control? Ponder over my simple thoughts and let me know what you think.