GS Article 4

HOW TO MAKE YOUR GOALS BIGGER THAN YOUR IQ!

by Rajen Devadason

God will not look you over for medals, degrees or diplomas, but for scars.

Elbert Hubbard

I don't know what your IQ is, but high or low, thankfully it doesn't matter much in the greater scheme of things.

You see, within reasonable limits, there is no correlation between high IQs and large net worths!

In a broader context, this means that you really don't need to be great at everything to succeed in life. But - and this is truly important - you should know what it is that you are good at so that you can WORK, WORK, WORK at excelling at it.

You see, even though we live in a global society that elevates the importance of IQ, the truly successful people in life aren't always the most intelligent, as figured by conventional IQ tests like the MENSA one I
coughed and sneezed my way through in London about 20 years ago!

There are other metrics or yardsticks that are more relevant to solid long-term success. In Daniel Goleman's groundbreaking masterpiece Emotional
Intelligence, he asks, "What factors are at play, for example, when people of high IQ flounder and those of modest IQ do surprisingly well?"

Goleman then goes on to answer his own question: "I would argue that the difference quite often lies in the abilities called here emotional intelligence, which include self-control, zeal and persistence, and the ability to motivate oneself."

The way I see it, while pure IQ is a useful indicator of potential, it is not the be all and end all of success. If you have a high IQ, please accept my congratulations, but don't let it go to your head (bad pun intended)!

Just scoring a higher number on a test doesn't make you a better human being any more than weighing more or standing taller than your neighbour makes you a superior specimen of our species.

Conversely, even if you don't have a stratospheric IQ, that also may be reason for congratulations. Whether it is or not, depends solely on you.

The true predictors of success are nestled in your heart, not your head. Your ability to exercise compassion, love, self-discipline, long-term sacrifice, even delayed gratification in the realm of personal finance, all count for much more.

So, I would suggest that if you have been feeling depressed about your life, you should bring things back into sharp focus by making a list of all your strengths - actual and potential.

Spend time doing this exercise. Don't rush.

Give yourself permission to do this slowly and meticulously. If you complete it in less than an hour, you wouldn't have done the exercise or yourself justice!

Once you have a long enough list, then make another one, this time of your key lifetime goals. This exercise will take longer.

My experience and research have taught me that in most countries, 97% of individuals don't have written goals.

This means only 3% of people do. Guess which group ends up working for the other.

Do write your goals down - include important physical, spiritual, financial, emotional and social goals, plus anything else you can think of. Then prioritise them.

Once you have that tidy second list of goals, lay it by the side of that earlier written list of personal strengths I asked you to generate. (If you didn't pen that list down, now's a good a time as any to get cracking on an exercise that will help you leap ahead
of most of the people you know in the decades ahead.)

Once you get around to putting those two lists - one of strengths and the other of goals - side by side, just a little bit of brain strain and imagination will allow you to begin to see connections, possibilities, avenues
and plans in embryonic form.

I urge you to develop them.

I plead with you to act on them...

All because I know you will thrive through them.


© Rajen Devadason