Understanding Intelligence
By Les Mottosky
If you harbour insecurities about your IQ, we're about to dispel them. But it takes moxie.
Culture treats intelligence as a function of the brain. Like it's exclusively about matters of IQ, logic, and calculation. But this perspective omits the most transformative part of being human: courage. Smart people don’t just think cleverly; they act bravely. They risk failure, embarrassment, rejection, and the unknown in pursuit of what matters. In pursuit of what grows them.
Real intelligence isn’t the ability to avoid mistakes. More accurately it’s the willingness to be wrong on the way to the learning. It’s the awareness that no amount of thinking substitutes for action. The smartest people understand that clarity doesn’t come from certainty, it comes from movement, experiment and measurement. They use their minds to chart a course, but it’s their guts that take the first step. And the next ones.
Courage and intelligence are not opposites. They’re complementary forces. The brain sees patterns; the heart senses possibilities. One analyzes, the other dares. Together they form a complete intelligence. One capable not just of understanding the world, but changing it. (At least their own little corner of it.)
So perhaps intelligence doesn’t live solely in the brain? Maybe it’s more accurate to think of it as distributed throughout the body? A personal biological ecosystem of perception, instinct, and spirit. When we feel something deeply and act despite the fear, that’s not stupidity defying reason; it’s wisdom expressing itself through bravery.
Corporate media is obsessed with reporting on the clever. But the truly intelligent are those who take brave steps toward uncertainty.
Courage is how intelligence comes to life.
Thinking is potential. Action is proof.
And the smartest people don't just internalize this, they make it their operating system.
TAGS: #Understanding Intelligence #Adaptation As Innovation #Radical Reframes #Cultural Creativity #Wisdom In Leadership
Les Mottosky
Adaptation Strategist // I help organizations turn creativity into their competitive advantage by aligning leadership, culture and strategy to unlock adaptive innovations.
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