I have to confess.

I tried listening to an “Increase your I.Q.” guided hypnosis last night.

And when I didn’t wake up any smarter, I had to ask myself:

Is it because I’m hopeless? Or because my ipod died after I wasn’t intelligent enough to think about charging it before bed? Or maybe that I’m doing everything except what people who wanna be smarter hafta actively do? My answer came in the form of someone else’s question on Quora today (a place I adore because of how much better I am at solving other people’s problems versus actually identifying or fixing my own). By the time I was done giving him life advice, I realized it was really a love letter to myself.

Much like everything I ever do.

Asker:

How do I come to terms with the fact that I’ll never be a genius?
I’ve been having a hard time lately accepting that I’ll never be a Newton/Einstein/Hawking-level genius. I’m bright, but I’m nothing extraordinary. It just bugs me that there are some things I’ll never be able to understand or appreciate (like extremely high-level math). How can I come to terms with this?

MissOpinePants:

You don’t!

You don’t “come to terms” with it.

You don’t even think about the label. I’m no theoretical physicist, but I have learned a few things about balancing acceptance and personal growth in the few decades I’ve been alive. And a lot of that has to do with not comparing myself to far smarter folks (it’s hard, but I try). You sound like you’re pretty smart yourself. So, you probably already know – deep down – that we all have to keep refining that brightness we do have for it to grow at all. And that asking “why” doesn’t help counteract any perceived lack. When we compare ourselves to the Einsteins of the world, we end up missing the “aha!” moments we can have (even if they never end up having to do with universal expansion or black hole discoveries or landing us a Nobel Peace Prize).

But if we are going to compare (because, let’s face it – it’s tough not to), we can remember this: a lot of those who are the greatest in their fields didn’t benefit from their cerebral superpowers strictly by being congenitally handed the keys to the genius kingdom. Sure, genetics plays a big role in beautiful minds sometimes. But it’s often not without the people who own those minds being willing to meet their gift halfway by practicing their passion and disregarding distractions. Actually, I have heard about “self-taught” geniuses before on a few of those documentaries (you know – the kind that have Michio Kaku in them).

Take from that what you will.

In fact, here’s a fun fact from one of those pieces (that blew mind mind. Ironic?): you wanna know one thing that shuts off the rational thought that aspiring geniuses like you need? Extreme emotions. Extreme emotions (like fear and self-doubt) sneak out of the limbic system like ego ninjas. Then they cog-block the cerebral cortex from doing things like writing eureka level formulas on windows of college buildings.

And we don’t even realize we’ve self-sabotaged our inner John Nash until we end up on Quora one day, questioning why in Holy Higgs Field we got skipped when they were passing out extra slices of smart. Just like that, we’ve crippled our inner genius – with our own inquiry!

In my own way, I’m guilty of this too. Most people I know are. But as Einstein said – we can’t solve a problem with the thinking that got us there. So, instead, I’ll leave you with a piece of advice I once heard (since it’s helped me, you can try it too, if you like):

“If you want what someone else has, you’ve gotta do what they do.” What did Einstein do? Are you practicing these habits every day too? Thought experiments? Long walks outside? Pick a few and try ’em out! Couldn’t hurt, right?

Good luck, my friend! You’ll be great.

So, the Quora moral is: have self-faith and don’t let self-doubt kill your brain buzz.

And with that, I’m off for a thoughtful Einsteinian style jaunt outside.

Right after I charge my ipod. And finish binging on the Franco corner of the interwebs.

(What? I’m researching geniuses to emulate.)