Intelligent people share certain traits and practices. In this article, I want to highlight the ones that will develop lifelong skills through simple daily practice.
1. Thinking Several Steps Ahead
In chess, if you don’t consider the consequences of your moves, you’ll lose. There’s no way to win if your actions are random and unplanned.
What separates intelligent people from irresponsible or careless ones is the ability to foresee the likely results of their actions.
How many people actually think before they act? How different would their approach be if they thought just one step ahead before taking action? What if they went four levels deep?
Thinking ahead is a sign of intelligence. It saves time and energy. It clears the fog around which path to take and which to avoid. The more you practice it, the more patterns you recognize. Over time, your decisions become sharper and your evaluations faster.
Practice: Play chess or any game that forces you to think beyond one move. You don’t need to master it—just focus on anticipating your opponent’s moves several steps ahead. You’ll train your mind to face problems and find multiple solutions.
Key takeaway: Intelligent people think several steps ahead.
2. Having more than one choice to choose from
Imagine having the same problem for decades.
Even worse, imagine having the same problem for decades with only one way to solve it.
This brings the same results and prevents you from finding better approaches—more efficient, healthier, time-saving solutions.
Approaching a problem with only one option is robotic. Sometimes it doesn’t even solve the issue, just gives you temporary satisfaction from the attempt. We should learn from past mistakes.
Two options create a dilemma. Three or more choices let you solve the problem as needed—even elegantly.
Practice: Shop at different stores, take various routes to work, travel to places you’d never normally consider, listen to different types of music. Do anything that breaks your daily routine. Approach these experiments with curiosity, not obligation. Comfort and sameness limit your capabilities greatly.
Key takeaway: An open mind and variety are essential to intelligence.
3. Being Self-Aware
This one is huge. Without awareness of yourself, improvement doesn’t happen—or it’s just accidental.
You need to observe your actions and their results so you can learn from them. This is crucial for recognizing problems and their patterns.
Remember: the human mind works through context, not just content. A problem might look different at first glance, but you may have faced it before. What you need is awareness of patterns.
Practice: Open a book to a random page and count the characters. If you lose count, reset and start again. Don’t force it, but focus on each individual character. Or try meditation. Or grab a handful of rice and count each grain. Be present when you wash your hands, drive, or walk. Or write in a daily journal.
Key takeaway: The pursuit of intelligence is pointless without self-awareness.
4. Attention to Detail
If you look at the work of great artists or any intelligent person, you’ll see their precision and deep understanding of their craft.
Practice: Try to notice things you’ve never seen before—when looking at art, watching a movie, or listening to music. Pay attention to the small details. Look closer (or step further back). Describe colors and sounds. Examine it from different angles, inch by inch, as if you were going to recreate every single element. Because the creator did exactly that.
Intelligent people can talk about something they find interesting for hours. For others, a painting is just something that hangs on a wall.
Key takeaway: Superficiality hides what matters. A sharp eye reveals it.
Conclusion
These four practices—thinking ahead, creating multiple solutions, self-awareness, and attention to detail—are simple yet powerful habits that can significantly enhance your intelligence over time. By incorporating them into your daily routine, you’ll develop lifelong skills that will serve you well in all areas of life.