Want to become really smart? Read this!

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   The argument has gone on for centuries. Is there a difference between being smart and being intelligent? I have probably know a number of each throughout my lifetime and have come to the realization that there are differences between being intelligent and being smart.

   Traditionally, when someone speaks to intelligence, they usually refer to a 'capability' with which you were born. It is a measure of your ability to learn. The greater your intelligent, the assumption is that the more you can learn. There are many great and familiar names associated with intelligence; Einstein, Curie, DeVinci, and Darwin to name a few. Let's not forget Socrates. Who in there right mind answers a question by asking a question? If it were not for these great intelligent thinkers, who knows what would not have been discovered or invented. Maybe the cell phone! I think, therefore I text.

   It is more difficult to come up with a list of 'smart' people. While there are lists, in general the name are unfamiliar, and to confuse the issue, the word 'smart' often has multiple meanings . The more popular lists of smart people contain the names of actors and entertainer, comedians and smart-alics. “Now don't be smart” is not really telling someone not to be smart. It is describing an obnoxious behavior.

   On neither list are highly regarded politicians or world leaders. That might explain a great deal about the current state of affairs, especially in Maine!

   What parent doesn't want their child to be intelligent? But, when you listen to a parent talk about a child, they usually refer to them, not as 'intelligent', but as being smart. “My child is the smartest in the class.” And this declaration is determined by whom?

   Several months ago there was a published article that rank ordered, from most to least, the states running out of smart people. Doesn't speak well of today's educational system now does it? More likely, they might have been talking about the new generation of babies being born. Actually I think they were talking about population shifts from state to state. Smart people move where it is warm in the winter. Good move!

   As I look back over my lifetime, I wish I had been smarter. I think I was fairly intelligent, but hindsight being what it is, it showed me that just being intelligent was not enough. Knowing a lot of facts, many of them unimportant, is not the same as being smart. What I learned was that being smart means taking advantage of and using the opportunities you are given to your benefit and to the benefit of others.

   As I think about the people in my life who I believed were smart, they had several things in common. They could admit when they were wrong. They could say they were sorry with ease. Each was comfortable to acknowledge when they 'didn't know something' and  could ask for help.

   Being smart is more than being intelligent. Being smart is being true to who you are and what you value. A smart person must be big enough to admit to mistakes, smart enough to learn from those mistakes and smart enough to avoid similar mistakes in the future.    
   Intelligence is important, but don't overlook the importance of attitude and a desire to work hard.

So... 'smarten up'!