How to Become a Genius: 20 Tips to Boost Your Brain Power (original) (raw)

Intelligence is trainable. You can gain it and lose it. Just like any other muscle, you have to work it to maintain and build it. However, the gym won’t help you here. To train your brain, you need to learn new skills, test your memory, practice thinking, and find ways to use what you learn.

Tip 6: Deliberate thinking

When was the last time you had a good thinking session? Indeed, we think all the time, trying to decide what we want for dinner or figuring out the best route to work to avoid the traffic. While this is using your brain, deliberate thinking is different — taking time out of your day and thinking about various concepts, ideas, and solutions, from the trivial to the complex.

You can do this anywhere, whether while lying on the couch, walking outdoors, or even during meditation. As long as you're focused and free from distraction, it counts. You wouldn’t believe how many of us don’t have deep thinking sessions, since we routinely distract ourselves with mobile games and YouTube videos about cats.

Tip 7: Train your memory

How good is your memory? As we get older, we become less sharp; scientists say we typically reach our peak in our early 20s. But does that mean we have to face the inevitable memory decline? Nope — as long as you train your memory.

You’ll find multiple ways of doing this, many of which might remind you of school days, such as taking notes about a speech, lecture, or a book you're reading, because it forces you to remember what was said or done. Repetition helps us to commit thoughts to memory.

To further train your memory, try doing tasks manually so you don’t need to rely on automation, whether it’s speed dial on your phone or autocorrect for your spelling. Memory training can be fun if you use it as a game. Use the four-detail observation exercise, where you have to note four distinct details about a person or scene to reinforce memory, or do a daily puzzle or game like pairs.

Improving your memory is critical, not only in helping you become a genius, but also in ensuring your cognitive fitness lasts longer than just your 20s.

Tip 8: Do puzzles

When was the last time you solved a jigsaw puzzle? If you’re struggling to remember, you may want to consider solving jigsaw puzzles more often.

What’s special about them is that working on them engages multiple cognitive functions at once, namely short-term memory, concentration, and problem-solving. By engaging both brain hemispheres at once, puzzles help improve mental speed and visual and spatial reasoning. A real mental workout!

If you can’t bear to put down your phone, you’ll find numerous daily puzzles that help you train your brain, such as Wordle and Number Waffle.

Tip 9: Teach what you know

We learn and develop our brain function through processes like recalling, repeating, and reflecting. A great way to activate this is through teaching what you’ve learnt. To teach something to another person, you first need to learn it, then you need to reflect on it, make sense of the information, and reorganize the ideas so they're easier to digest. You then repeat what you’ve learnt, adding your own take and interpretation, all the while cementing your own learning and memory.

Tip 10: Embrace mental discomfort

What makes someone an academic? You probably think it’s possessing several degrees, writing peer-reviewed papers, and pontificating on five-dollar words. An authentic academic is someone who thoroughly learns opposing views to expose themselves to other thoughts and ideas, even if it makes them uncomfortable.

Of course, it’s more comfortable to be adept at the Flying Spaghetti Monster orthodoxy, but it’s critical to develop intelligence by exploring and becoming an expert on concepts contradictory to your belief system.