So How Smart Are You Really?

Why is being smart so important? And of the two, being smart or being beautiful, which one ranks first? What if you are one of the lucky ones that is both smart and beautiful-and what if you are also rich? God, some people are so darn lucky! Really, being smart is considered an important attribute and most people would never admit to being anything less. So how do we determine whether you are smart or not, and if you pass muster, how do we rank you by degree of smartness?

Many would consider IQ as the barometer test for degree of "smartness" but this quotient only measures certain qualities of intelligence. Many people have artistic abilities, for example, which would not be necessarily measured by such a test. Moreover, the IQ test does not factor that some people are poor test takers-nervous Nelly's by nature, who panic at the slightest. Such types do not perform well under the pressures of a test. Because a person is inherently nervous does not mean that this person is not very smart. People of this sort need to be put into an optimal state before one can adequately assess the true level of their intelligence.

One thing that scientists and statisticians have been able to determine is that problem solving, and strategy games like chess and others help improve a person's cognitive functioning and can therefore raise one's intelligence. This would only seem to make sense. After all, if we look at someone who goes to the gym to work out and in so doing the happy gym-goer stresses the muscle properly, the result is that the muscle comes back stronger and grows more functional. Analogously, with increased "mental muscle" comes increased ability to solve problems-emotional as well as day-to-day-and increased ability to make oneself financially successful. Now I don't know about you, but having financial success is certainly worth a little time and effort at working out those gray cells lining the frontal lobe of your brain.

So get going and start working those crosswords, sudoku, and cryptic puzzles (try the latter and you will really get a brain workout). Try some math puzzles and problems. Who knows? We may see you on the cover of Fortune Magazine in 2008. Whatever mental exercise you choose, have fun and remember that whatever time you spend working out your brain will pay many dividends in the present and future time. So how smart are you really? This can be determined simply by how easy is for you things you want without hurting anyone get it to do. So, what is your IQ?

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