The three biggest mistakes unconsciously intelligent people make

Unconsciously intelligent

If you do not realise yourself that you’re highly intelligent, you have some blind spots which can cause you trouble in relation to:

• Communication – you jump straight from A to Z without any arguments that lead to a conclusion, so you lose other people
• Teaching and meetings – you feel that things aren’t moving fast enough and find it difficult to focus
• Relationships – you may find it difficult to find like-minded people who you can connect with
• Expectations – right from the start, you have high expectations of yourself and others
• Management – you can easily get your lines crossed, as per the above points

You probably believe that you are only slightly above average. I used to believe that about myself. And so it wasn’t until I was 41 years old, when undergoing certification for an intelligence test, that I realised I was among the 10% most gifted. This made a lot of pieces fall into place in my life.

However, in this blog post I want to focus on the three biggest mistakes that gifted people make when they don’t realise that they’re gifted.

See also: Er du begavet uden at vide det? 

The 3 biggest mistakes unconsciously gifted people make

When you don’t know that you’re among the 10% or 5% most gifted, you’re not aware that you’re faster and smarter and/or that you make fewer mistakes in your work than 90% or 95% of the people you happen to meet or work with. (However, this does not apply to research, highly specialised professions or among senior management in large organisations).

This is why you easily make three errors:

1. You think that what’s easy for you is also easy for everyone else
2. You often feel stupid when other people don’t understand what you’re saying
3. You trust in justice and may be politically naive.

1. You think that other people are capable of and know the same things as you

In your mind, something may be completely obvious and self-evident, so you think that it is equally obvious and self-evident to everyone else. This could be the solution to a task, the implementation of a project or understanding a complex problem which leads to complications and frustration for your colleagues and perhaps also your boss.

Or you may find errors, defects and weaknesses in a strategy, a new product or a workflow, which you are convinced that everyone else should be able to see as well.

The problem is that this is not the case. And that makes it your problem. Because you haven’t yet recognised that you have a blind spot: a cognitive, intelligence-related blind spot which makes you unable to see or understand that you know more and are capable of more than most people.

Practically speaking, this may mean that when you communicate, it goes right over other people’s heads, and you risk talking down to them or even lose patience with them because they don’t understand what you’re trying to tell them, or they’re unable to see that you’re actually right.

The best thing you can do is give them time. They just need (slightly) longer than you to arrive at the same conclusion.

And then you’ll have to accept that this is the way it is. Neither you nor they can do anything about it. What you have between your ears just happens to work faster and/or for longer than other people’s brains.

See also: Har du været i lære som “normal”?

 

2. You feel stupid when other people don’t understand you

This happens to you over and over: you say something that seems logical to you, explain a correlation, put forward an idea or a proposed solution. The situation varies slightly from time to time, but what usually happens is that:

• They carry on chatting as if they didn’t hear what you said
• You try to explain it in a different way
• They are partially listening; perhaps a few people understand you, while the others continue chatting regardless
• After some time, another person says what you said right at the beginning, and now everyone understands it immediately.

Of course, there may be an aspect of group dynamics which means that the others don’t really listen to you. You may have been given the role of “the nerd” or “the weirdo”, so that your social status in the group is lower than the formal (or informal) leader’s status, and then the others more or less consciously ignore you to avoid ending up further down the hierarchy themselves.

On a more basic level, however, it may also be a sign that they simply cannot understand you or follow your train of thought because you talk over their heads and use some words and concepts that they don’t understand or can’t relate to. Because, like radio stations, you transmit at different wavelengths and find it difficult to tune into each other.

No matter what, you’ll easily end up feeling that “it must be me there’s something wrong with”. In a way that is also true, but it’s not because you’re stupid. On the contrary.

For these reasons, it can be really good to put numbers – and in particular a percentile – to your IQ. This will make it more factual, allowing you to see in black and white why you’re not like everyone else and why you don’t think the way they do.

 

3. You trust in justice

You are usually the first to notice that something isn’t working properly. This means that you’re also the one who finds out and points out:

• That the workflows are too slow and could be more streamlined and efficient
• That – obviously to you – the product has a design flaw, which will have to be fixed before the customers start complaining
• That there is an informal leader in the group who tries to feather their own nest or just generally takes up extra time and space in the group

Or that there is something else that ought to be fixed, done differently and taken care of.

And you trust that you will be listened to and that it will be taken note of and, of course, that something will be done about it.

The only problem is that other people would prefer not to know about it. They would also prefer you not to repeat it in different contexts or keep drawing attention to whatever you think it is they should do something about. Because they would rather not have anyone point out their errors – or because they feel threatened, or exposed as incompetent.

Consequently, it becomes logical to shoot the messenger. This is easier than doing something about the problem that you have pointed out.

And I’m truly sorry to have to say this: the world is not fair. Nor is it governed by logic and reason or the right values and ethical principles. The world is controlled by power, money and big egos, so you will be fighting in vain. Unless, that is, you learn to play the political game, stand up to them properly or manipulate them into believing that your ideas are their own.

Then again, I can console you with the fact that you mustn’t take it personally. It’s not about you. Even when you’re stabbed in the back, slandered or sacked. It’s simply because you stood in the way of someone who insisted on getting their way.

 

Become conscious

Get on with it: take the Intelligence test now in order to understand yourself, and other people, better. For example, you can start with the free test available here: IQ test – Illustreret Videnskab
And no, you haven’t just been lucky. The test is reasonably valid and accurate.

Welcome on board! You’re also welcome to join my brilliant Facebook group Potentialefabrikken – where you’ll find lots of other people just like you.

 

See also:

• 4 differences between having a high IQ and a normal IQ
• 4 reasons why gifted people do not progress in their careers
• 10 signs that you are more gifted than you think