LOW IQ - 3 REASONS WHY NOT TO BE WORRIED

 

You always did well in school and were always topper in your class. You have a High IQ. You were regarded as the Smartest in the class and were always your teachers pet. In-spite of all this, are you:

1) Suffering from Stress?

2) Are you Anxious? 

3) Are you feeling left out? 

4) Are you feeling Insecure? 

5) Are you feeling that your Career growth is not in line with your Intellect and Academic excellence?

6) Are you having challenges with your relationships?

If you have answered "YES" to even few of these questions, then you probably suffer from High Intelligence (IQ) Disorder Syndrome. So I would request you to read my entire blog as it could help you.

This sounds crazy but having High IQ or being a very intelligent person with excellent academic record, does not guarantee you success. Researchers on the subject agree that IQ, or a person’s Intelligence Quotient, contributes to about 15% or 20% max towards success in person’s life, sometimes even lesser. People with High IQ Score of 140 and above are considered to be in Genius Category. Less than 1% of the world population falls in this category. Even a IQ Score of 120 which is considered above average puts you in a less than 9% of the world population. And this is where the problem starts. People with High Intelligence tend to be less happy. As Ernest Hemingway once wrote " happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know". With High IQ comes a host of problems.    

High Intelligence puts them in a minority and hence they have difficulty fitting in. They are considered and many times even called "crazy", "phycho" and many other adjectives. They become socially isolated because they don’t have any common interests with people with average or Lower IQ.   

Even at work, bosses don’t like you because your Boss feels threatened having a very intelligent subordinate. People with High IQ are observed to have poor people skills and that creates a roadblock for them even in their careers. Businesses of today not only requires people who are intelligent but  also need employees having people skills. Researchers believe that because people with High IQ expect a lot out of themselves and so do others, they are under constant performance pressure which causes stress as they tend to over analyze things. They become highly excitable and tend to ignore their own flaws or problems which are very visible to others. This leaves very little chance for correcting themselves. They also appear as arrogant and poor team player. But they are neither. It is just that they see  things around them differently. However, this makes them quite unpopular.  So when the choice is between School Smart and Street Smart, it is mostly the Street Smart who wins the race. This is not fair for these highly intelligent people but unfortunately the world is designed for the majority. You can’t have a systems designed for a population which constitutes less than 9% of the populace. All this may lead to several mental and physical disorders in people with High IQ.    

     I am Milind Sahanie, 10X Productivity Coach and founder of "New Skills for the New World" Platform. It is my goal to increase the revenues of 30000 Entrepreneurs by 10X in next 5 years.  

    Harvard Psychologist Dr. Daniel Goleman found in his research that "What determines success is character, or the ability to resist temptation by developing willpower, self-control and empathy, which is more important than the intellectual power of the brain" .

Now this can be a very good news for those who did not do well in school, in academics and were not born with the Gift of High Intelligence. These findings should give hope to those who have lost motivation because of a fear of failure or low self-esteem based on misinformation about their ability to succeed just based on their low IQ Score. 

Research carried out by the Carnegie Institute of Technology shows that 85 percent of your financial success is due to skills in “Human Engineering,” So let’s have a look at these "human engineering skills":

Emotional Intelligence or EQ: 

Studies show that Emotional Intelligence (EI) is actually a greater indicator for achievement, both in academics and in life than pure intellect. Emotional Intelligence is the ability to understand and manage our own emotions positively to overcome challenges of life. It helps in conflict management and in managing stress. Five key elements to EI are Self Awareness, Self Discipline, Motivation, Empathy and Social Skills. EI is the first step in understanding your true potential. People high on EI are less prone to stress, are more successful negotiators, are better communicators and are generally positive and happy people. This helps them to perform their jobs better and also make then socially active thus improves their networking abilities which again helps them grow in their profession. 

Body Intelligence or BQ:

      

 Next Area to focus is your Body Intelligence for BI. Intelligence is not just with the brain. Even your body has its intelligence and is smart too. BI is about you understanding your own body, being able to receive its signals and responding accordingly. Body has its way to communicate with you. You should pay attention to it and listen to what it is telling you. If you have been ignoring these signals so far, then it is time for you to start paying attention to it. Are you eating well? Are you exercising to keep it fit? Are you giving it enough rest to recover from days strain? Your BI does have a significant effect on your professional success. A tired or a weak body is unable to provide the required energy, confidence and focus to address the rigors of daily professional commitments. So rather than avoiding your body signals and treating them as obstacles in your work, pay attention to them and respond accordingly.

There are several ways to improve your BQ. Doing a routine medical check-up, annually or  twice a year, depending on your age and current health condition, paying attention to repetitive injuries or any other physical issues, which can be a topic for a separate discussion.

Essentially a High BQ can have a significant impact on your Professional Success.  

 

Moral Intelligence or MQ:

Another learnable Intelligence is  Moral Intelligence or MI. It is our ability to understand and differentiate between right and wrong. It helps us apply our ethics in our day to day work. It helps us build our Character which is very important in our professional lives. MI focusses on Integrity, Responsibility, Compassion and Forgiveness. It is all about doing the right thing which is so essential for personal and organizational success. Leaders regularly come across situations where they have to make a choice and if our MI is high, our ability to make the right choice becomes easier. It is like our internal GPS System which shows us the path to take in any situation.

Moral Intelligence generally starts building at a young age as it hinges on the values, principles, ethics that our environment provides us. However, it is very possible to work on it at any age by practicing on the virtues that constitute MI and improve on our MQ.

Spiritual Intelligence or SQ:

Last but not the least is Spiritual Intelligence or SQ and is the latest addition . It encompasses all the above 3 Reasons. It provides foundation to all the above Intelligences and is also a learnable Intelligence.  We Indians are from a land of Spirituality. However, Spirituality is highly misunderstood by many. It has nothing to do with Religion and nor it is limited only to Yogis or Maharishis. Spirituality helps us connect our Inner Self with Nature, Universe, The Infinite, The Unknown Power, you can call it by any name. We all have Spirituality residing inside of us waiting to be discovered. Spirituality brings balance and peace in our lives. It helps us keep our Emotional and Mental Health in balance. It helps us with our Body Intelligence and Moral Intelligence by helping us to have a dialogue with our own body and Inner Self and also helps us differentiate between right and wrong, It helps us build up on our value system and many other things, which can a be topic for another discussion. In fact, I would say, SQ is a cornerstone of all Quotients. And this enhances not only our personal lives but also our professional lives.

Success= IQ+EQ+BQ+MQ+SQ:

In a Nutshell, you need to have all the Five Intelligences in the right proportion, built into you, to make you a complete person and thus become successful, personally as well as professionally. Good news is, other than IQ, which you are born with and has limited scope of improvement, the other 4 can be learnt. So even if you are disadvantaged and born with a Lower IQ, you can still be successful if you compensate your lower IQ with other 4 learnable intelligences. This applies other way around too. Those gifted with High IQ but struggling with life, they can improve their life and career by acquiring the other 4 learnable Intelligences. This becomes more advantages to them because you are already gifted with High IQ and if you acquire the other 4 Intelligences you are already ahead in the race. Moreover, with increased research in this area, it is becoming a norm in Corporate Hiring to assess the potential employees on all these parameters and not just based on academic excellence. With the onslaught of newer technologies like Artificial Intelligence, machines will be used to do data crunching and take decisions based of the available data but machines cannot be used for decisions based on Emotion, Moral or Spiritual standards, at least not yet. So it is time for all of us to invest in our EI, BI, MI and SI so that we are able to get that dream job that we aspire for and prepare ourselves for the job requirements for the future.

If you wish to discuss this further, you can connect with me by emailing directly at newskills4newworld@gmail.com

If you like my blog please like, comment and share with others and if you wish to bring in 10X Productivity in your Professional Life join my Facebook Group "New Skills for the New World"  by clicking on the link below and get other like minded people to join too. 

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Thanks a lot for staying with me for this entire blog.