What to do everyday to become smart

Credit

• Be willing to suck. Getting smarter and better is a process—a process starts by acknowledging that you’re not good, embracing it, and working on it every day. And the more you learn, the more you need to remind yourself about much you don’t know, and continue putting in the work to get better again.

• Ask absurd questions. Your thoughts are the answers to the questions you asked yourself. To get smarter, ask yourself difficult questions and solve complex problems. One of the best questions to ask yourself is, “Why?”

• Learn to make fast decisions. Set rules for (or eliminate and delegate) low-stake, repetitive decisions, so you get to spend less time considering and more time on executing.

• Get enough, well-optimized sleep. Sleep helps clean out the wastes in your brain built by during the day. At the same time, it allows our brains to organize and sort information we picked up during the day.

• Read every day. You only have so many time to experience and learn so much. Reading breaks the barriers of time and space, allowing you to gain insights and wisdom beyond yourself. A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies; the man who never reads lives only once.

• Exercise. Run, swim, lift heavy weights, jump and climb—move. Our body is designed to move. Exercise doesn’t just improve our physical health, it also promotes the release of growth hormone that enhances our cognitive performance at the same time.

• Learn a new language. Your life—beliefs, thoughts, emotions—are defined by the vocabularies you use. And your vocabularies are constrained by the language you know. Mastering a new language changes the way you think, feel, and live.

• Meditate. Practice mindfulness. Master the ability to be aware of your surrounding and letting them go at the same time. This subtle ability gives you the control over your mind and body regardless the circumstances around you—especially the stressing ones.

• Make a what-to-do list and what-I-did list. Plan your day ahead. Then end your day by going through what you’ve done to review your progress and reflect on what you’ve learned.

• Disable all your notifications. Guard your attention like it’s the most precious things in your life. Instead of getting carried away by unimportant emails and social media updates, focus your energy on things that are truly important to you.