Lifelong learning mindset

If we want to learn how to become smarter every day then we must learn to adopt a continuous improvement mindset.

No matter how intelligent and wise you are, there are always new things to discover, do, and learn in life. Why? Because one lifespan is far too short to know it all. Not to mention that our brain capacity, for all its wonderful capabilities, is still limited.

That’s why you should adopt a lifelong learning mindset to keep becoming smarter as you grow older. Most people tend to become complacent and lazy when they age, feeling like they deserve to take things easier due to what they’ve already been through and have endured in life.

But when we become self-satisfied, things become stale and stagnant. Instead, if we keep applying ourselves, we constantly gain fresh opportunities to learn novel things and acquire new skills.

Practice critical thinking

Practice critical thinking to weed out the lies, what’s wrong, and what’s bad, while simultaneously getting to know the objective truth. And while the truth may hurt at first, it will eventually set you free.

Critical thinking is surprisingly hard since people are subjective, affected by biases, and are typically lazy, all the while tending to avoid hard work.

But someone who can think critically for him/herself is a powerful individual that’s almost impossible to manipulate. Critical thinking is also a great antidote to groupthink behavior.

It allows us to make the best possible decisions with the information at hand.

Be open-minded

One of the most vital things to do to learn how to become intelligent is to remain open-minded to prevent closing your mind to new experiences and novel learning chances.

Often, what is most valuable to us and what we should know in life lies in the unknown. If we’re close-minded and only stay in our safe bubble by merely doing what’s known to us, then we can’t learn new things.

Life is complex, and there are oftentimes multiple ways of looking at and interpreting the world. That’s why we must remain broad-minded enough to consider different points of view. It’s also necessary to realize and admit that we might be wrong sometimes.

Admitting when we’re wrong is a sign of strength, not of weakness.

Become more conscientious

One of the vital steps towards learning how to become smarter is increasing our conscientiousness. Becoming more conscientious means you’re diligent, hardworking, careful, and dedicated to your craft.

If we want to succeed in life, then we must learn to become more conscientious by applying ourselves and programming ourselves with good macro and micro habits that enforce hard work.

Conscientious people typically report a greater amount of subjective and objective success.

Being intelligent is great, but another vector that we can influence for the better is becoming more hardworking by increasing our conscientiousness.

This means that every one of us should learn how to apply ourselves optimally to get the most out of life.

Be humble

Arrogance prevents us from learning new things. Because why would one actively search out new experiences to acquire new abilities if we go through life thinking we already know it all?

Humbleness involves acknowledging what we know, but even more importantly, realizing and admitting how much we don’t know.

Being humble will prevent you from becoming close-minded. And people who close off their minds to new experiences have effectively lost the ability to learn anything new.

Don’t be prejudiced

Prejudice means one is biased from the very beginning. If we wish to become smarter, then we must aim to get as close to the objective truth as possible.

Now, if we wish to get to the truth, then we must aim to discover facts by being objective and researching empirical evidence.

Prejudice means we’re not being objective and that we’re starting with a lie and a false premise. That obviously will not lead us to walk the right path towards truth.

Avoid biases

We should all attempt to avoid biases such as confirmation bias, prejudices, and recency bias.

People tend to be biased. Confirmation bias is one of the most well-known and antagonistic ones concerning becoming smarter.

Confirmation bias means that we’re actively searching out information that confirms our preexisting beliefs, while at the same time avoiding, and disregarding information that goes against our already established belief system.

If we want to become smarter, then we must search out the truth and weed out the lies and wrongs in the information we have access to and, and in our current beliefs.

Establish good habits

Beneficial habits such as working out multiple times a week, being disciplined, and eating good, healthy food work for us, while bad habits such as drinking too much alcohol, eating unhealthy, and watching TV multiple hours each day work against us.

What we must realize is that we are the result of our habits and the decisions we make every day.

We are like a machine that we must program fittingly to do our job properly. A machine must be used and maintained regularly to function smoothly. And the mind is no different.

Self-improvement mindset

The self-improvement mindset is closely related to the lifelong learning mindset.

A self-improvement mindset means that one is constantly looking to improve themselves, both physically and mentally.

Self-improvement is never over since we’re humans, and human beings are never perfect, nor can we ever know all there is to life. Our universe and existence are far too complex to accomplish that feat.

But constantly improving yourself will result in a new and improved you. Not to mention that it will better your life, and that of those around you as a result.

Exercise

Humans are made to move around. If we don’t, we become frail, and often chubby due to a lack of exercise and consequently, energy expenditure.

Exercising is also important for a healthy, well-oxygenated brain. We need good aerobic conditioning because our brain needs to work for a long, continuous time each day.

Furthermore, a good anaerobic shape is also required when we need to think intensely for a short burst to solve an urgent problem and to engage in overall problem-solving behavior.

In short, the brain needs to be well-oxygenized in order to function properly and optimally.

If we’re not in good cardiovascular shape, then our short and long-term memory will become impaired, which will impact our cognitive performance for the worse.

Get enough sleep

Sleep is one of the most critical aspects of functioning properly.

Studies have shown that sleep-deprived people make worse decisions, suffer from cognitive impairment, and have less energy, which means less vigor to learn new things.

Aim to get between 8-10 hours of sleep to be well-rested and to start your day off right. Of course, the amount of sleep that’s right for you can be a little different from your peers, so it’s up to you to experiment to find what the right amount of sleep is for you specifically.

Read

Reading means we have access to someone else’s thoughts, ideas, and knowledge. It forces us to understand somebody else’s point of view and to comprehend all the new information at hand.

This means we will learn a lot of new things. It’s also incredibly time efficient if we’re reading a book from a viable and reliable source since we don’t have to search out all the information ourselves since the writer has already done that hard work for us.

If the writer is trustworthy, then we can typically rely on the fact that the information is reliable and objective.

This means that reading books can be a quick way to acquire new knowledge.

Aim to understand

Aiming to understand is a general rule that we should always apply to learn new things in life.

Instead of simply reading, seeing, or hearing something, aim to understand what is happening to gain a deeper understanding of the mechanics and reasoning behind it.

When we understand the mechanism that’s at work, then we can start to interlink between different topics and see how they are related and influence each other. Often, things truly are connected.

Aim at the truth

Aiming at the truth is something that we should always be doing to live our lives as honestly, and forthrightly as possible.

And while living in a fantasy and sweet little lie might be attractive at first, I still believe it’s a recipe for disaster waiting to happen. Sooner or later, that lie will collapse and what we’ve been avoiding will be laid bare for you, and everyone else, to see.

Confront your lies as early on as possible, and get your act together to live a content and productive life.

Think of new ways to do old things

Thinking of new, creative, and more effective ways to do old things is a great way to improve your life and efficiency in those things.

It helps us to think flexibly instead of turning rigid with age. A flexible mind allows us to pivot quickly, which is needed because life is ever-changing and is never constant.

Not to mention that it forces you to use your brain for higher executive functions such as problem-solving behavior instead of wasting it on instantaneous short-term gratification such as watching movies and YouTube clips.

Surround yourself with people smarter than you

Surrounding yourself with people smarter than you are does a lot of positive things for you.

It keeps you humble, prevents you from becoming arrogant, and forces you to be on edge and to give the best of yourself to be able to compete.

Of course, you don’t want to be the least smart person in the room either, but surrounding yourself with a few people who are smarter than you is still wise in order to learn from them.

If you’re constantly the smartest person in the room, then that just means that you need to find new groups of people to interact with.

Become disciplined

Becoming disciplined is a requirement to become prosperous at whatever we decide to pursue. Be it becoming a good family member, a successful business person, or creating a powerful self-improvement mindset.

We must learn to forego and delay the impulsive and immediate short-term gratification for a long-term, but much larger and more satisfying delayed gratification.

This requires a great deal of discipline, since our desires incline to have a strong sway over us and typically scream to be satisfied.

Practice

Use it or lose it, it’s that simple. The use it or lose it principle is a real phenomenon. And the words convey its meaning. What you use, you tend to keep, while what you don’t use, you’re more likely to lose.

Remember that study material that you repeated and studied multiple times over the years? Chances are large that you remembered that information much better and for longer than if you would’ve only studied it once and then never touched it again.

Practicing allows us to hone our skills. Humans must learn to put themselves well together. And that’s not something that’s easily attained. It requires hard work, the necessary smarts, and a lot of practice!

Become educated

Education is not the same as being intelligent. A lot of the extremely intelligent individuals didn’t receive a formal education or achieve a degree.

However, education does provide a unique possibility to learn brand-new valuable skills such as critical thinking, discipline, teamwork, and searching out empirical, objective evidence.

This will serve you well for the rest of your life. All these formerly mentioned abilities and many more are extremely useful to flourish in life.

Challenge yourself

Challenging yourself is needed because it gives you an incentive to grow as an individual and to become more competent. If things are too easy, then why would you work hard and smart if you can succeed with much less effort?

That’s not to say that things should be so difficult and overwhelming that you can’t succeed or that you’re too afraid to even attempt that challenge.

But still, challenging yourself teaches you to be courageous, how to work hard and smart, and that good things often require patience and an incredible amount of hard work to acquire.

Write

Writing forces us to think about what we’re penning down. This enforces critical thinking and a deeper understanding of the topic at hand.

This means that writing teaches us a lot of valuable skills such as critical thinking, a deeper understanding, and the patience to think about our thoughts and to articulate them into the world.

Teach and share information

Teaching and sharing information is a great way to get smarter since you’re interacting with other people.

Chances are that others want to chime in as well and share something valuable, or make a counterargument to the points you’re making.

This means that if you manage to keep an open mind, you’ll learn all sorts of new things by listening to other people. It’s also a great way to test your arguments and your beliefs against other people and their point of view.

Eat clean

Think of the body as a machine. A machine needs careful maintenance to prevent it from breaking down. Likewise, the body and brain both require healthy food to function well and to stay healthy.

Eating unhealthy can lead to mood swings, depression, bad sleep, less focus, and many more negative things.

Needless to say, all those things are detrimental to becoming smarter, since we require sleep and focus among many other things to learn new stuff.

Diversify your day

Diversifying your days helps to make sure that you get a chance to learn new things on multiple fronts. This can enable you to become proficient in multiple areas of your life.

That’s not to say that specializing is bad, on the contrary. But one must first get a good base of general knowledge and broad understanding before bunkering down and committing to one particular area to specialize in.

Apply your fantasy and creativity

Your fantasy and creativity can be important tools to do things differently. It allows for free thinking and can serve as a pathway to do things in another more effective manner.

They say that winners are dreamers who never give up, and this might exactly be the case. You need to dream big to achieve something of value. A goal worthy of your time and effort.

Socialize

People are social animals. This means that we have to socialize with other people to stay healthy. If we don’t, then we will deteriorate mentally, and can even go insane in some extreme cases.

Socializing means interacting with one another. And listening and speaking to each other can give us new, priceless information. It can also allow us to view life, and its many wonderful experiences, in a different light.

Apply active listening skills in order to pick up all that new information, instead of simply waiting for your turn to speak to catch a spot in the limelight.

Make a to-do list

Making a to-do list ensures that you’ve thought about your day, and your life and that you made a value judgment about what’s important to you and what you want to achieve in your life.

It creates a visible and helpful tool that allows us to stay on track. It can make a tangible instrument to track our achievements, and if we are, and remain productive with our time.

Plan your days

Planning your days means that you use that to-do list to create a plan that best suits your goals. It allows you to divide the time of the day the way you want it to.

Planning your day is essential if we want to get work done without wasting countless hours. The larger and harder our personal goals are, the more we need to systematically plan our days.

Especially if we consider the fact that some folks have kids, work, and sports to play in their free time. If we lead busy lives, then that simply means we need to plan and use our time more effectively.

Stimulate your brain

Becoming smarter is all about stimulating your brain. It has been shown that getting too little stimuli when we’re a child leads to lower fluid intelligence. In other words, stimuli deprivation leads to becoming less intelligent.

Again, the use it or lose it synaptic pruning principle allows us to maintain the skills that we use frequently. All the while making room for new, more essential skills for our survival by getting rid of the abilities we don’t use often.

De-stress often to prevent getting overwhelmed

Being over-stressed can cause us to become less productive because we sleep less, have less energy, have more negative thoughts, procrastinate more, and so on.

Things like video games, playing sports, and meditation can help us wind down after a stressful day or period.

Video games typically get a bad rep, but there are multiple advantages to them as well. Video games usually demand problem-solving behavior, which means you have to flex your brain muscles to solve those hurdles.

Thus, this means that video games can even help you to get smarter by applying these advantageous problem-solving traits!