Believing You're Smarter

Many people are stuck in “survival mode.” Too many people settle for mediocrity because they think they must “survive” instead of “thrive.”

Never let the fear of poverty hold you back from your dreams.

Benjamin Franklin once said, "Most people die at 25 and are buried at 75." This metaphorical death comes when people figure they can't make it happen, so they end up quitting in advance.

Fear of old age can also be harmful when a person has to go through a major career transition. In the end, age is far less important than your belief in yourself.

Save small decisions for after work (when decision fatigue kicks in) and to tackle complex decisions in the morning, when your mind is fresh. 

A similar strategy is to do some of the smaller things the night before to get a head start on the next day.

...and you'll able to look at decisions as objectively and rationally as possible.

Strong decision-makers know that a bad mood can make them lash out or stray from their moral compass just as easily as a good mood can make them overconfident and impulsive.

Don't let stress motivate your decisions. When you're feeling the most stress, you'll also feel the biggest urge to make a poor choice.

If you do make a decision while you are under stress, ensure to re-evaluate it when you are calm.

When you're under regular stress, you'll never get a chance to make good, rational choices.

If you set aside 30 minutes each day to relax, you will be in a better state to make smart choices.

• Decide the time you’re going to wake up and set the alarm for that time (put your alarm clock in a different room so you physically have to get out of bed to turn it off).
• Have a few key objectives for your morning.
• Set up literally everything that needs to be set up so that you don’t have to waste mental energy during your morning.

... because of past issues.

Jordan Belfort took a chance on a handful of employees that were in dire situations. Despite past misconduct or lack of experience, he looked at personality and work ethic when making decisions.

As a result, he hired many of the "wrong types" of people. These people did great work for him, and felt indebted for the opportunity. It teaches to look beyond a resume or a few key signals when making hiring choices.

Social gatherings are a great way to build company culture. Stratton Oakmont was extremely creative about the events that they had. These activities created a stronger bond between people at the company and offered a fun, social outlet.

Company get-togethers do not have to be as morally wrong as Stratton Oakmont's were to accomplish the same thing. Rather, it takes extra creativity and effort from a company.

• Ease in forming and maintaining interpersonal relationships and in ‘fitting in’ to group situations.
• A better understanding one's own psychological state, which can include managing stress effectively and being less likely to suffer from depression.

There is no correlation between IQ and EQ scores.

IQ has no connection with how people understand and deal with their emotions and the emotions of others (EQ). 

You simply can’t predict emotional intelligence based on how smart someone is.

Mental strength isn’t an unlimited resource, don’t waste it on things you can’t control.

Do what you can. Be your own change--but don't try to make everyone else change.

Learn from your mistakes, and those from others too, but let them go. The past is just training; it doesn't define you.

When something bad happens, see it as an opportunity to learn something you didn't know. When another person makes a mistake, learn from it and see it as an opportunity to be kind, forgiving, and understanding.

We often assume that intelligence guards against bias. Its why those with higher S.A.T. scores think they are less likely to make universal thinking mistakes.

However, smarter people are more vulnerable to these thinking errors.

• People who are aware of their own biases are not better able to overcome them. Our intuitive thinking is just as prone to overconfidence, extreme predictions, and the planning fallacy.
• According to scientists, intelligent people have a larger bias blind spot. They can spot systematic flaws in others, but not in themselves. They will excuse their own minds but harshly judge the minds of other people. 

• Be wary of fear and spot it as soon as it begins to surface.
• Stay positive. 
• Know what you know—and what you don’t.
• Embrace that which you can’t control. 
• Focus only on what matters. 
• Don’t seek perfection - it leaves you lamenting what you failed to accomplish instead of enjoying what you were able to achieve.
• Don’t dwell on problems. Rather focus on actions to better yourself.
• Recognize when you are overly influenced by your assumptions and emotions or by another person’s opinion.
• Have a contingency plan without asking "What if?"