I am going to ask you to take a few moments and reflect on your own life. See if you can identify the time of your peak mental ability, meaning the time period when your cognitive powers were at their best. When you could take in large amounts of new information quickly, understanding it easily. When your recall was fast, sharp, and accurate. For some of you, it may be right now, at this current time in your life, but others often point to some time in the past. Many say it was perhaps their high school years or their college years. Certainly, those are times in our lives when we made a great deal of effort to take in a large amount of information in a relatively short period of time, but it is not necessarily the time of our peak cognitive abilities. In fact, the human brain does not fully mature until we are into our mid- to late-twenties.
When you ask people to identify the time in their lives when they were in their best physical conditions, most people have no problem answering. In fact, they usually admit it was some time in the past, often very far back in the past. They will often regale you with stories of the good old glory days of their physical prowess.
Conversely, I find that most people do not like to admit they are not as smart as they used to be. Or if they will admit there has been a decrease in brain power, they often attribute that to the aging process. We assume that as we get older, our cognitive abilities slowly start to erode. The good news is that all the latest neuroscience is telling us there should be no decrease in our cognitive abilities—none whatsoever—until we are into our seventies and eighties, and even then it is not inevitable. Any decrease that does occur before this is often due to a very pervasive condition called mild cognitive impairment (MCI), which we will speak a great deal about in the following chapters.
I promise not to bore you with a lot of biochemistry or neuroanatomy, but it is critically important for you to understand what chemical processes take place in your brain on a daily basis—related to your intelligence—that you have a great deal of control over. If you were to look up the definition of intelligence in a series of dictionaries, you would find slightly differing definitions, but they all basically boil down to this:
INTELLIGENCE:
the ability to take in new information, understand that information, store it, retrieve it, and then use it in some meaningful way.
In 1983, the psychologist Howard Gardner put forward his theory of multiple intelligences, which is now the most widely accepted intelligence theory. In his book Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, Gardner claims there is not one intelligence, rather there are eight separate and distinct intelligences, and each one of us possesses all eight of these intelligences at varying levels. Here are the eight intelligence categories explained in detail:
1. Logical/Mathematical
This intelligence has as much to do with pattern recognition, abstract thinking, and overall imagination as it does with our ability to manipulate complex numbers and equations. People with logical/mathematical intelligence are good at scientific investigations and identifying relationships between different things. They are also good at understanding complex and abstract ideas. People in this category are often best suited for the following professions: accountant, auditor, bookkeeper, computer analyst, computer programmer, computer technician, database designer, detective, economist, engineer, lawyer, mathematician, network analyst, pharmacist, physician, researcher, and scientist statistician.
2. Spatial
This refers to our ability to see things in a third dimension that do not already exist. A sculptor does not just see a large block of marble in front of her, she actually sees the shape inside the block that she has to create. Architects have exceptionally good spatial intelligence. They are able to look at a flat two-dimensional drawing and visualize exactly what it will look like in a third dimension. People in this category are often best suited for these professions: architect, artist, computer programmer, engineer, film animator, graphic artist, interior decorator, mechanic, navigator, outdoor guide, photographer, pilot, sculptor, strategic planner, surveyor, three-dimensional modeler, truck driver, urban planner, and webmaster.
3. Linguistic
This involves our ability to use sounds and tones to connote meaning. If we take a group of individuals at any age and teach them a first, second, or third language all at the same pace, certain individuals will pick up the new languages much faster than others because of their high linguistic intelligence. Knowing and understanding nuances of a language is also indicative of a higher linguistic intelligence. No matter how many terabytes of memory or how fast the RAM processing speed, there is not a computer on this planet that can make a joke. There is not a computer that understands sarcasm. These are considered nuances of a language, and knowing, understanding, and being able to use them is indicative of a higher linguistic intelligence. People in this category are often best suited for these professions: attorney, comedian, communications specialist, curator, editor in publishing, historian, journalist, language translator, librarian, marketing consultant, newscaster, poet, politician, songwriter, speech writer, talk-show host, teacher, and writer.
4. Bodily-Kinesthetic
This intelligence deals with our ability to move our bodies through time and space. Athletes and dancers exhibit a high kinesthetic intelligence. The ability to use our bodies to manipulate other objects in time and space is also indicative of a high bodily-kinesthetic intelligence. The juggler with six balls going in the air at the same time is a good example of this type of intelligence, as is a surgeon with his or her precision scalpel. People in this category are often best suited for these pro-fessions: actor, athlete, carpenter, dancer, dentist, firefighter, forest ranger, jeweler, mechanic, personal trainer, physical education teacher, physical therapist, recreation specialist, sports doctor, surgeon, video game designer, and yoga instructor.
5. Musical
If we were to take a group of individuals, of any age, teach them some musical theory, and allow them to practice for exactly the same length of time, some of those individuals would be far more accomplished on the instrument than others. People with musical intelligence appear to have an enhanced sensitivity to rhythm, pitch, meter, tone, and melody. People in this category are often best suited for these professions: audiologist, choir director, music conductor, music teacher, musician, piano tuner, recording engineer, singer, songwriter, sound editor, and voice actor.
6. Interpersonal
The cornerstone of interpersonal intelligence is emp-athy. Empathy is our ability to be in tune with the feelings and needs of others without them necessarily expressing those to us verbally. Interpersonal intelligence is often referred to as emotional intelligence, emotional quotient (EQ) versus intelligence quotient (IQ). Emotional intelligence can be tested for, and study after study has repeatedly shown that a high score on the emotional intelligence rating is a much better indicator of how successful a student will be through his or her four years of college than a high score on their SAT exams. Typically, all great managers and all great sales people have high emotional intelligence. People with high interpersonal intelligence are skilled verbal and nonverbal communicators. People in this category are often best suited for these professions: actor, administrator, communications specialist, conflict resolution specialist, customer service rep, dental hygienist, group mediator, human resources manager, manager, marketing specialist, nurse, Peace Corps participant, politician, psychologist, religious leader, salesperson, social director, social worker, teacher, trainer facilitator, travel counselor, and waiter/waitress.
7. Intrapersonal
This intelligence refers to our ability to understand ourselves. Intrapersonal intelligence allows us to know and understand our strengths and weaknesses and predict how we would react if we were put in any given set of circumstances. People in this category are often best suited for these professions: actor, artist, career counselor, consultant, criminologist, entrepreneur, energy healer, futurist or trend predictor, intelligence officer, personal counselor, philosopher, program planner, psychic, psychologist, researcher, small business owner, spiritual counselor, theologian, therapist, writer, and wellness counselor.
8. Naturalistic
This intelligence refers to our innate ability to be in tune with nature and our environments. Perhaps you have a neighbor living beside you in an identical house. You have the same lawn, the same garden. Their garden looks terrific, yours does not look so good. So you ask them, “What are you doing that is different?” You find out you have exactly the same soil, you are using the same seeds and the same fertilizer. You are watering on the same schedule, and you have the same amount of sunshine. Yet their garden looks great and yours does not. When asked, they are unable to explain the reason for this. What we often say is those people have a “green thumb.” What those people actually have is a high naturalistic intelligence. They seem to just know what is necessary and when regarding nature. Perhaps a little less water here or a little more water there. Perhaps less sunshine in one area and more in another. They seem to recognize when the vegetation is not thriving and have an innate knowledge of what is necessary to correct the problem. People in this category are often best suited for these professions: air quality specialist, animal health technician, anthropologist, astronomer, biologist, botanist, dog trainer, environmental lawyer, farmer, forest ranger, gardener, geologist, landscaper, meteorologist, nature photographer, park naturalist, veterinarian assistant, water conservationist, wetlands ecologist, wilderness doctor, wilderness guide, and wildlife illustrator.
In our flawed school system, children from an early age are given a series of standardized tests that determine their relative strengths and weaknesses. An inordinate amount of time is then spent focusing on the child’s weaknesses, trying to bring them up to some arbitrary standard of proficiency. Instead, the focus should be on the child’s natural strengths and talents and placing the majority of our efforts nurturing and developing those.
The same is true for adults. Do not waste a large amount of time and effort focusing on your cognitive weaknesses, the things you naturally struggle with. Rather, identify your strengths and direct the majority of your efforts improving and growing those areas. Not only will you see enhancement rapidly, it will be infinitely more enjoyable. For more than a century, neuroscience believed that the brain was hardwired. The generally accepted thinking was that the brain works on electrical circuitry, and neuroscience believed that once those circuits formed—which they do very early in our infancy and childhood—they were permanent. Each circuit would then control a specific aspect of our mental and physical functioning. They were “hardwired” much the same as the electrical circuits in your home are. No matter how many times you flip the light switch on and off in your foyer, the light in the upstairs bathroom is never going to turn on, because your home is hardwired.
It was believed for hundreds of years that we inherited all our intelligence from our parents. We now know this is false. We only inherit 50 percent, the other 50 percent is developmental; how rich and stimulating our environment is as infants and small children. Until thirty years ago, it was believed that by age eight or nine our intelligence was fixed because it was hardwired. It would remain the same until our senior years when it would begin to decline.
But all of that changed thirty years ago with the discovery of neuroplasticity, which has revolutionized neuroscience. Since that time, there have been many neuroplastic pioneers who deserve a great deal of recognition, each of their discoveries lent another layer to our understanding of the brain’s tremendous ability to change itself and our cognitive intelligence. Your brain, including all of your cognitive strengths and weaknesses, is changeable.
“Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start.”
—NIDO QUBEIN