Toheeb is one of the smartest guys in the class back
then in school. Since we graduated 2 years ago, he
has been doing quite well in his career, but when he
checks Instagram, he sees guys he outperformed in
school who are making more money and achieving
greater things than him.
Likewise, there some of his colleagues at his work
place who are doing better than him. All these
makes him wonder with no choice than to ask
himself, “What Am I Doing Wrong”?
You can relate right? You might relate to Toheeb
yourself, or have a colleague or friend who
struggles with the same feelings.
The truth is, raw intelligence is undoubtedly a huge
asset , but it is not everything. And sometimes,
when intellectually gifted people don’t achieve as
much as they would like to, it’s because they are
indirectly under-rating themselves.
If you’re in this situation, the good news is that
when you understand these things that are
hindering your success as an intelligent person,
you can turn them around.
Below Are five Things Smart People Particularly
Struggle With That Is Preventing Them From Making It
In Life:-
1. Smart People Don’t Value Other Skills, Like
Relationship Building, And Over-concentrate On
Intellect
Very smart people sometimes are always over
confident of their success in life because of their
intellect, so they don’t see other soft skills as
important.
For instance, some smart people don’t always feel
the need to go out clubbing or chill out, they
prefer to stay indoor working or watching educative
programmes forgetting that going out chilling
relaxes the brain and also increases your chances
of meeting people who will offer you bigger
contracts.
They grow up being told they’re smart, and during
their schooling, academic success comes more
easily to them than to others. It’s easy to
understand why, as a result, they would continue
to focus on their intellect as adults and other
things like building strong relationships with people
becomes meaningless to them.
In life, you need more than raw intelligence to get
ahead. And only focusing on your greatest
strength, rather than also addressing your
weaknesses, tends to be self-destructive.
The Solution: Use your strengths to
overcome your weaknesses. If you’re good
at learning you can simply learn the skills
that don’t come as naturally to you.
Learn how to talk to people, relate with
others and developing positive attitude. For
instance, identify three specific workplace
diplomacy behaviours that would improve
your success in that area. You can be smart
buy your attitude makes you smarter!
2. Teamwork Can Be Frustrating For Very Smart
People
Smart people grasps idea quickly and has high
standards for their own performances. This makes
it difficult for them when working with others who
process information and grab ideas slowly.
This frustration develop early in smart kids they
feel other slow learners are holding them back
and as a result, they have problem with team
work.
Some students will put it upon themselves to
handle group assignments involving 10 people by
themselves all because they feel they can do it all
better.
Smart people also sometimes find it difficult to
delegate because of a sense they can do a task
better (regardless of whether this is actually true.)
This is especially likely for those who have a
perfectionist streak.
If you understand the concept of associative
thinking you will know that no idea is entirely bad
no matter how useless they appear. You can’t be
smart in everything, some people know more than
you in some situations.
The Solution: Be self-compassionate about
your internal reactions and understand
where they come from, but also learn to
genuinely appreciate what people of
different minds bring to a team.
3. Smart People Often Attach A Lot Of Their Self-
esteem To Being Smart, Which Can Decrease Their
Hustling Spirit
If a lot of your self-esteem rests on your
intelligence, it can be very difficult to be in
situations that threatens your smartness.
Smart people always avoid taking risk that will put
them situation of getting criticized and as such
they are always contented the little success they
are getting.
Any situation that triggers feeling not- smart is
experienced as highly threatening. The smart
person may even seek to avoid those situations,
which ultimately holds the person back.
For instance, I have a secondary school mate who
is a naturally gifted singer but won’t go into music
because he feels the chance of making it in
music in Nigeria is a low. That’s fear of failure.
The Solution: Take an objective view of the
benefits of working with people who are, in
some respects, smarter than you.
If you’re surrounding yourself with smart
people, you’re doing something right.
Remember, iron sharpens iron.
Develop relationships with people who you
trust to give you helpful constructive
feedback. The more you become
accustomed to receiving criticisms as
feedbacks from people who believe in your
overall talents and capacities, the easier it
will become.
4. Smart People Get Bored Easily
If you’re smart, curious, and have a love of
learning , you might find yourself loosing interest
quickly in anything once you’ve learnt it.
This is why some people, after learning graphics
design instead of focusing on it so that can be
cashing out steady, they move to learning web-
designs and after some months of getting bored
with codes, they want to start learning video
editing again.
The everyday execution side of one thing might
bore you, and you’d rather constantly be learning
new different things.
As a result, finding a niche and repeating the
same formula might seem too boring or
unchallenging to you as a smart person.
The Solution: Instead of attempting dramatic
change, decide on something related to
what you’re currently into, learn it and be
using it to break the boredom.
For instance, if you’re a graphics designer,
you can learn photography so that when
you get bored designing, you can go out
to take some beautiful photos, then come
back to design.
Additionally, make sure you’re learning
across the various domains of your life,
including your work, hobbies, physical
fitness, understanding yourself and so on.
5. Smart People Sometimes See In-depth Thinking As
The Solution To Every Problem
Intelligent people are used to succeeding through
their thinking skills, but in most cases overlook
when a different approach would be more
beneficial.
For example, the smart person might attack every
situation by trying to think it to death, over-
researching every decision and ruminating over
every mistake when other approaches geared
towards coming up with solutions would be more
fruitful.
The Solution: Notice when you’re thinking
too much. Consider when strategies other
than thinking are more likely to result in
success.
Experiment with taking breaks to get
unstuck, and allow yourself to learn by
doing something instead of exhaustive
advance research.
Expand your range of skills for getting
solutions so that you’re not the person who
sees every problem as a nail because their
only tool is a hammer.
If you can relate to any of the points above, do
not judge yourself or feel shameful about it, know
that you can turn them around by the tactical and
practical solutions we have highlighted.
Which Of The 5 Points Can You Relate With The Most?
Feel free to share as we will be replying all
comments to help you further.
