How To Be Smart

I went from a hard headed kid who was always in trouble and expected to end up dead or in prison to a person who turned his entire life around and became extremely successful against all odds. I spent years learning how to be smart so I wouldn’t become what everyone else expected me to be. I completely rewired my brain to start growing myself into the best version of myself that I could possibly be. I did it all myself. If anyone can help you learn how to become very smart it is me.

After all… I did decide to name my site Smart Rapper… I help people get smarter everyday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxFyCFiYF_c

Get Smarter By Being Open Minded

If you want to know how to be smart the first thing you need to do is open yourself to anything and everything that comes into your life.

Every moment you are alive there is an opportunity to take the moment you are in and the people you are around and learn from it.

New experiences, new food, new people, lifestyles, ideas, music… really anything that the world has to offer.

Don’t lose out on valuable knowledge by not looking for opportunities to learn.

 

Remember, the mind is like a parachute, it works best when it’s open.

 

I used to be closed minded to everything! I used to think that I knew everything I needed to know and that I had all the answers.

My entire life changed when I started opening my mind to new ideas and I stopped being a know it all. I even made my very first life lesson video based on it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFtTIX4ovSk

 

Be A Curious Sponge

Learn from EVERYTHING. When I said to be open minded I meant every single solitary thing.

Look at things in ways that you have never looked at them before.

When you look at your TV, wonder how it works internally and what makes the TV picture show.

When you see an ice cream truck, try to imagine how they stay in business. What are the margins on ice cream? How many customers do they get a day and how many do they need to keep the truck going with gas and maintenance? How much did it cost to get the business started?

Smart people always look at things like this. Yea, it’s just an ice cream truck but every time you run into any business or thing you will start learning.

If you don’t know the answers, Google it!

Every time I see anything I break down and try to analyze how it works. This expands my mind in all directions.

All you have to do is just start using your brain instead of just letting things pass you by.

As you keep doing this you will get smarter and smarter and all of this understanding will help you understand bigger and more complex things.

 

Listen More Than Talk

Smart people know that you aren’t learning anything when you are talking. Why? Well when you are speaking you are only saying things you already know, right?

You need to listen more than you talk so you can absorb other people’s ideas, perspectives and knowledge.

Every time you meet someone new you can actually be doing more than just building your network and making friends. You can actually be learning too. All by listening.

You want to be hanging out with people that you are going to be learning from anyways. You shouldn’t be spending much time around people who aren’t going to help you grow.

 

Read Books To Be Smarter

When I found out about the power of books it completely changed my life.

I read one book, learned an insane amount and so… I read another book. Books showed me how to be smart.

 

How powerful are books in the journey to helping you get smarter? Let’s look at it like this.

If you were going to write a book, what would you write a book about? It would definitely be something you know A LOT about because you spent your entire life working at growing the knowledge on that skill or experience.

You can’t write an entire book unless you know a lot about something.

A book is someone’s years of knowledge all wrapped up into 5 hours of reading. It is them explaining what they spent YEARS to understand and you can learn a new skill or a completely new area of expertise simply from reading 1 book.

That’s crazy right?

 

Because of that knowledge I actually try to consume 2 books a week. Every time I finish a book I add it to my list of books I’ve read so others can learn too.

www.MyCrazyLifeStory.com/Books-Ive-Read

This is how you become a very smart person fast.

 

Read Articles To Be Smarter

I have a list of bookmarked resources I use everyday to keep myself updated on different industries from music to social media marketing.

If you have a daily list of places you can find new news you learn everyday in just a few clicks to get there and start reading.

Making it more readily accessible is a smart idea because there will be less resistance and procrastination.

Here is an example of my LEARN bookmarks.

 

Listen To These To Get Smarter Daily

Anytime I really want to hone in on a skill or learn how to be smart in any area, first thing I do is look for a podcast that is made just for that area.

When I built this website, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. That’s when I came across podcast and I realized the massive power they had to help me learn how to get smarter fast.

I taught myself how to build this site and every single thing around it that allowed me to move to quit my job and move to Hollywood, CA all because of podcasts and determination to get stuff done.

I listened to hundreds of episodes of internet business podcast over the course of 6 months, got smarter everyday and implemented everything I learned to be this $100,000 a year business you are reading on right now.

There are podcasts for everything though! Look for whatever you want to learn how to be smart in and start listening!

 

Train Your Brain To Get Smarter

I was in the Top 2% of Lumosity users when I was brain training everyday. Lumosity is a free site with games claiming to improve memory, attention, flexibility, speed of processing, and problem solving.

I honestly did feel smarter everyday when I used it. Even if it was just the placebo effect, the 5 minutes a day was totally worth it.

Plus you are just playing games so it’s actually fun!

 

Use Different Parts Of Your Brain Randomly

When you do the same things everyday your brain isn’t growing. You are using the same neuro pathways you always use and because of that, your brain doesn’t have to add any additional pathways that will actually make you smarter.

If you don’t know yet, your brain has 2 sides of it and each side is for different things. Your left side is the logical side, it’s for things like math, being practical and reasoning.

The right side of your brain is for creativity. When you have random ideas, when you make music, paint, draw or do art, that is the right side of your brain.

I mention this because if you want to know how to get smarter, a huge tip is to do things for both sides of your brain every day and also change up the things you do so your brain has to rewire itself to adapt to your brain use.

To get my brain going every morning I wake up, I have an alarm that won’t turn off unless I complete 5 math problems. That gets my logical side of my brain going before I am even fully awake.

Randomly during the day if you feel fatigued on a project that is making you think a lot you can start getting smarter by doing random right brained activities such as drawing, painting or making music. And of course vice versa.

This quick shift from left brain to right brain increases the neurological pathways and makes you smarter.

It will help you think faster allow you to be way more creative and artistic over time if you continue to do this.

 

Meditate So You Can Learn Faster

Meditation helps with focus and living in the moment. In turn that will help you get smarter faster.

Most people sit in their heads and worry about things all day instead of living in the moment and actually absorbing their surroundings or trying to learn.

I know a lot of people think meditation is stupid but to be honest it is super easy and you will feel amazing and smarter after you do it.

I don’t recommend you start trying to do it in full 15-20 minute sessions. Instead I recommend you simply meditate for 1 minute and get used to it so you can see the power of it.

Every morning I wake up and I meditate for 1 minute doing 6 deep breathes and exhales while focusing on my breathing. My mind is sharp and I am ready for my day. Ready to learn and get smarter!

 

Watch This To Increase Intelligence

You can watch Documentaries on random subjects and expand your mind and get smarter

Documentaries are amazing ways to go deeper into things you don’t know much about.

Here are some documentaries that blew my mind when I watched them.

1) Requiem for the American Dream – How the people in power have manipulated everything to change and sway the rules so that we stay poor and in need for the government so that they stay in control.

2) Scientology: Going Clear – This is hysterical and it just gets more and more crazy as the documentary progresses. How can so many people be brainwashed? Tom Cruise… you silly man.

3) Where to Invade Next – How every other country is set up better than the United States based on our founding principles and ideas. When you realize some countries have way higher test scores, no homework and work less yet live better you’ll wonder why America isn’t like that.

4) Bill Maher: Religulous -You may be a bit offended by the time this ends but it’ll open your mind to how religion is… well… you’ll see.

 

Watch those 4 documentaries today all on Netflix and tell me you aren’t a smarter better person by the end of the day.

 

Become Smarter In A Few Minutes

You can watch YouTube videos on a new software, a new skill set you want, knowledge about a specific industry or dang near anything.

I taught myself Sony Vegas, Adobe Premiere Pro, Pro Tools, How To Mix Music, How To Make Websites, How To Build Relationships and just about anything I wanted to learn all from YouTube videos, podcasts and books.

What do you want to know how to be smart about? Type it in to YouTube and start learning right now and learn how to become very smart.

I’ll be turning this article into a video on how to be smart. You’ll be able to watch it soon!

 

Learn A Word A Day Easily

If you really want to be smart and sound smart to everyone you talk to, you need to learn new words.

It’s super easy! Just sign up for Merriam Webster’s word of the day!

They will send you the new word of the day to your e-mail.

I’m so about helping people learn how to be smart that I actually do a ‘Word Of The Day’ on my Instagram Story and SnapChat.

I don’t just take a Merriam Webster word of the day though, I actually hand pick a word everyday I feel people can use in conversation and I tell you the definition and I also use it in a funny sentence.

Today’s word was ‘Propensity’. See what today’s word of the day was and get smarter by following me on Instagram @Rob_Level and on SnapChat @iamnov.

I also offer a lot of inspiration seeing as how it’s my job to inspire people through everything I do 🙂

 

 

I hope this article helped you learn you how to be smart. If you want to know how to become a very smart person time just follow everything above and you’ll get there one day at a time.

Remember, you are only going to get smarter if you are actively trying to better yourself. There is no shortcut to being smart. Part of being smart is realizing that you have to educate yourself and learn information, gather knowledge, intelligence and wisdom.

If you want to know the difference between knowledge, intelligence and wisdom there’s a pretty cool explanation here.

They are quite different even though most of us think they are the same thing.

If you want to know how to stay focused on getting smarter everyday then you’ll definitely find my how to focus tips helpful.

You’ll be smarter in no time! Keep up the hard work!

 

– Rob Level <– Follow Me On Instagram

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