The Success Intelligences

I read a few interesting facts about Michael Phelps, the American swimmer who won 8 Gold medals at the Beijing Olympics. This is a world record. In his short career, he already has 16 Olympic medals (14 Gold and 2 Bronze). Here is the interesting part. He comes from a broken home. As a young boy he was diagnosed with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) which is a neurobehavioral developmental disorder. This condition manifests as distractibility, difficulty with concentration and focus, short term memory loss, procrastination, problems organising ideas and belongings, tardiness, impulsivity, and weak planning and execution. His teacher told him he would amount to nothing because he had no focus. She was wrong. The guy is already worth USD9 million (potentially going to USD100 million), broken and made world records. I am reminded of Virgin founder and billionaire Richard Branson who was dyslexic (learning disability). The point is that there are other intelligences which contribute to success other than the traditional IQ. Using thoughts from Stephen Covey I would like to look at the 4 types of intelligences and which ones you ought to develop.

Physical Intelligence – (Body)

Phelps might not have been endowed with a great IQ, but his Physical Intelligence (PQ) tips any scale. Physical intelligence is the ability to discipline our appetites and passions so that the body can blossom. The spirit and mind can only thrive when our body is in great health. You need to consider what you eat, get lots of rest and manage your energy as much as you manage your time. Your cognitive abilities and thinking process is compromised when the body is overworked. The best example is to look at nature – the Creator has created cycles for animals and trees to renew themselves. In order to operate at optimal levels of success in life, we need to govern our bodies and take captive of appetites and passions which bring sickness to us. My Dad passed on from cardio vascular complications at the not so old age of 54 because he was always working. It is important to always find time to relax and rest. If we don’t manage our bodies we block our access to innate intelligences, prematurely age, limit mental clarity and diminish our creativity.

Mental Intelligence – (Mind)

Mental intelligence refers to your capacity to look at issues, think, analyse, connect the dots and solve problems. This is also known as mental capacity in basic terms the “brain”. This kind of capacity is given by measure by our Creator. However, each one of us has a responsibility to multiply that measure. We can improve it by exercising it. As you exercise your brains, you develop “muscle” to tackle bigger challenges as well as the staying power to think through issues until you find a breakthrough. Continual use of the brain, leads to wisdom and understanding. Secondly, you can improve mental intelligence by learning. Learning opens you to new information (knowledge and awareness) and creates a multi trajectory of new possibilities and opportunities. The more knowledge you have the less chaos in your life – “in knowledge and wisdom shall be the stability of your times”. Empires of the future are empires of the mind. Your future is as big as your mind…but how big is your mind?

Emotional Intelligence – (Heart)

Emotional intelligence is about our little private victories that lead to public victories. It consists of five elements:

1. Self awareness – the ability to recognise and understand your moods, emotions, and drives and their effect on others.

2. Self regulation is the ability to control or redirect disruptive impulses and moods or the propensity to suspend judgement (to think before acting).

3. Motivation is a passion to work for reasons that go beyond money or status and strong drive to achieve even in the face of failure.

4. Empathy is the ability to understand the emotional make up of other people and skill of treating people according to their emotional reactions

5. Social Skill is proficiency in managing relationships, building networks and an ability to find common ground and build rapport.

For me Nelson Mandela gets a tick on all the five. Greatness in life is attained when your heart is not driven by selfishness and greed but by the common good. Emotional intelligence is about our ability to control ourselves for the sake of achievement that transcends personal interest. All of us need to develop this kind of intelligence because it kills jealous, envy, greed, malice, frustration, anxiety etc. These emotional states interfere with our intelligence capacity. This is why a professor can do a stupid thing (high in IQ but low in emotional intelligence).

Spiritual Intelligence – (Spirit)

Above all this get spiritual intelligence. This kind transcends human understanding. I would like to define this as the divine cognitive ability and thinking process in the human spirit. It is the mind of your Creator in your spirit. It is the highest level of intelligence where you operate in divine knowledge, wisdom and understanding. It only comes from one way – being in complete fellowship with your Creator. You understand His ways and His thoughts concerning your life. One Daniel of ancient Israel had spiritual intelligence. He could solve riddles, answer hard questions, uncommon understanding and interpret complex dreams. Spiritual intelligence activates the key of faith and operates by grace (charis in Greek). Faith makes you live in a world of possibility and grace makes you charismatic (gain favour). It optimises the other 3 intelligences BUT the good news is even without the other 3 with this one your life can be a success!

Sweet Spot Of Success

A few months ago I shared about the record leavers, history makers and legacy makers in life. I would like to expand on that and share some insights on what distinguishes each one. In business we talk of strategic alignment. This is the extent to which all the various elements in a business are in line with the vision and mission of that business. Your life is very much like a business. To what extent are all the elements in your life aligned to your personal vision and goals? In this article I would like to share about the 3 kinds of alignment. Your life is ‘disaligned’, misaligned or aligned. To live a life that is maximized you need to be aligned. The point where your talents, actions, opportunities and divine destiny meet is the sweet spot of success. Many times because you are disconnected or misconnected life becomes such a struggle.

The Disalinged Life

The disaligned or disconnected life is one which is not driven by a vision. You are disconnected from your purpose, actions and have no consciousness of your destiny. Life has no meaning or purpose. You are completely disconnected from the purpose which your Maker wired you for. You are basically a hammer which is acting screw driver. A square peg in a round hole or a fish out of water. It is very important to understand your wiring. If you study space age mechanotrics and try a career in politics your political judgment might not project you as a great politician. I know of two professors who were brilliant as academics, but everything they touched with their political hands turned into a disaster.

It is presumptuous to assume that success in one area will necessarily translate into success in every other area. To be a legacy maker in life stick to the knitting. Have laser beam focus on the one thing you are uniquely wired for. Know your wiring. There is a difference between seizing an opportunity and opportunism. The former refers to an ability to exploit an opportunity that is aligned to your talents and destiny. The latter refers to grabbing an opportunity driven by sheer narrow mindedness or parochial greedy without any due regard for your own vision and the good of many. That is dangerous! If your life is disaligned any road will lead you there. There is no conscious and rationale evaluation of opportunities that come your way. Success is an accident. Failure is not a surprise.

The Misaligned Life

The misaligned life is one which while there is a vision, the methods and execution is at cross purposes with one another. You are like a battery with the terminals switched. There is power in the battery, and the objective is to give power is clear, but with the positive and negative terminals switched, nothing happens. Although you are working so hard, you experience burn out, because there is a ‘short’ somewhere.

In business if the Marketing department is highly innovative, but the Research and Development department is conservative, that is strategic misalignment. If you have a vision to be a great business person but you can’t read financial statements then you are misaligned. If you want to be amongst the top 10 professionals in the industry but you don’t improve your knowledge you will keep dreaming until retirement or redundancy. If you intend to build an investment portfolio, yet you don’t know how equity markets, long term investments and other marketable securities or real estate work, you need think again. Even start by buying penny stocks and graduate to blue chips. The point is your vision is a product of the collective actions which you do every single day. You cannot be a great preacher, if you don’t submit and allow great preachers to disciple and mentor you. A misaligned life is lived by hindsight and regret. The future remains a dangling carrot and life becomes a rat race or a dog chasing its tail. Instead of creating your future, time is wasted in rework and repair.

The Aligned Life

The aligned life is a life which is ‘in the zone’ or in the flow. Life ceases to be a struggle. Life is not happening to you, but you are happening to life. You do not see light at the end of the tunnel; you are the light in the tunnel. There is a congruency amongst your talents, vision, actions, opportunities and divine destiny. You are a round peg in a round hole. You are a wolf in wolf’s clothing. You are doing what you are cut out to do. This state is not achieved by accident or trial and error. The starting point is to know your wiring. What are the competencies and skills which make you uniquely different? Secondly, where is your life going, or what do you want to achieve in life? Thirdly, what activities must you do applying your skills to achieve your vision? Fourthly, which opportunities should you exploit in order to optimize or leverage your actions and talents to achieve your vision? Lastly, what has your Creator called you to accomplish in your generation? As you answer these questions, you discover the sweet spot of your success. There must a common thread cutting through your answers to make your life an aligned life. An aligned life is lived by insight and foresight. You create your future. Life is sweet and joyous. You find profit in all your labours. You have an assurance of success upon success.