China232.com Blog

When I ask people what they would do to increase their intelligence it surprises me how many people say, “go back to school”. So many people associate school with learning and have a hard time thinking of other ways to improve their minds. I believe that intelligence means a persons ability to handle new information and make good decisions with that information. I also believe that you can be intelligent in certain areas and a complete idiot in other areas. Some intelligence is “natural” but I think that most people focus too much on that part. I think that most people can become intelligent in areas that they are currently weak in.

The human brain is a special machine designed to take in information from the environment and make adjustments and improvements to how it will tell you to handle that information. It’s important to challenge your brain with many different kinds of new information. This information that I’m talking about is anything that you can see, hear, smell, touch, or feel. Basically anything at all that you can notice that is happening around you. If you are doing the same thing every day, your brain is taking in the same information all the time and it has no chance to grow or improve itself. People who interact with different people all the time increase their social intelligence. They are able to see how different kinds of people react to different things. Their brains can then use that information to make adjustments and give them a better plan for dealing with people. You learn from experience what kinds of things make people laugh, what kinds of things make people feel uncomfortable, what kind of things make people want to do business with you. If you only socialize with a small group of the same people all the time, you will know what to expect and you won’t learn anything. The key is to always be doing new things and challenging yourself. Any other area of intelligence is the same. If you want to be better at solving computer problems, the only way to do that is to always give your brain different kinds of computer problems to solve. You’ll get faster and better at doing it the more you do it. Your brain is always learning from the new experiences. Its not simply the amount of time. You could spend hours on the computer just writing emails and chatting with your friends and you’d learn almost nothing. You could also keep doing the same task over and over again. Again, you’d learn nothing. The key is to keep challenging yourself with new experiences. If you want to improve your English, you must learn new words and talk about new things that challenge you. Its easy to get stuck at one English level. Many people get to a level where they have no problem in daily communication but seem to never be able to talk about more advanced topics. It’s not because they aren’t smart enough, its just because they keep talking about the same things and doing the same things.

If you want to increase your intelligence in any area you must be constantly doing new things. Ask yourself how many new experiences have you had over the past month. If your life seems to be almost the same every day than you are probably learning very little. Make a point of reading something new, making a friend with a person unlike your other friends, eating a new kind of food, going to a new place for a vacation, playing a different sport. Make sure you aren’t doing the same thing day after day, watching the same TV shows all the time, and hanging out with the same kinds of people all the time. To start out, make sure that at least once a week you will do something that you’ve never done before. Even if its go to a new restaurant or read a new book. Start out small but make sure you are making more and bigger changes as you grow.
I’d love to hear your comments and experiences.
Andrew

Hi guys. Here are some basic tips on using “ing” I hope it helps!

You should use “ing” when you are using it with the verb “to be”.

1. I am eating pizza

2. She will be coming tomorrow afternoon.

3. I was talking to my mom on the phone.

The “infinitive” is using “to” with a verb.

The “infinitive” is used after certain verbs eg. (forgot, hope, want, would like, promise, decide)

1. I forgot to call you. NOT (I forgot calling you)

2. I hope to see you next week. NOT (I hope seeing you next week)

The infinitive is always used after adjectives. eg. (happy, surprised)

1. I am so happy to see you.

2. I was so surprised to hear your voice.

“ing” is used when the verb is the subject of a sentence.

1. Smoking is harmful to your health

2. Dancing can be a lot of fun.

“ing” is used after certain verbs. eg. (dislike, enjoy, practice)

1. I dislike eating meat.

2. I enjoy sleeping in.

“ing” is used after prepositions.

1. I can’t believe he left without saying anything.

After certain verbs the “infinitive” or “ing” could be used. (begin, like, love, start)

1. a) I like to run.

b) I like running.

2. a) I will start to cook soon.

b) I will start cooking soon.

**IMPORTANT!

Don’t combine the “infinitive” with “ing”

1. I so happy to meeting you. (REALLY BAD)

2. I want to cooking with you (REALLY BAD)

“Yet” can be used in a few different ways. I’ll go over a couple of the most common and most important uses.

1. “Up to this moment; now “

He’s not here yet. (He is not here now but he will be here.)

I haven’t been to Japan yet. (I have never been to Japan but I plan on going.)

Are we there yet? (Are we there?)

2. But still, nevertheless

What you said is strange yet very true.

3. In addition (emphasizes a slight surprise)

This website has yet another user.

You’ve made that same mistake several times in the past but now you are making it yet again.

“Whatsoever”

Whatsoever basically is used to emphasize, “not at all”

I have no idea whatsoever. (I have absolutely no idea.)

I can’t speak Korean whatsoever. (I can’t say anything at all in Korean.)

That has nothing whatsoever to do with me. (That has absolutely nothing to do with me.)

That makes no sense whatsoever. (That makes no sense at all.)

Almost everything a company will ever do is because they think it will in some way help to increase profit. Companies often relocate to a place where the cost of labor is cheaper. This is especially true of companies that have a lot of relatively low-skilled jobs. Certain companies may wish to relocate to an area where there is a higher talent pool of workers. Internet companies for example often move to Silicon Valley in California because of a relatively high number of people living there with appropriate skills to fill such positions. Some companies move to save costs on real estate or other costs such as hydro. Some move because of logistical reasons like they want to be closer to their suppliers to save on transportation costs. Some might move to a different country because they believe the government regulations there are more favorable to their particular business. I.e. the tax rate might be lower, the environmental laws may be more lax, or the worker’s rights may not be so strong. Some companies relocate to be near other companies in the same industry. This phenomenon is called clustering. Whatever the case, there are certainly many reasons a company may relocate, but basically it all comes down to profit.

What are beliefs? Well, simply put, beliefs are what you believe to be true. Does it mean they actually are true? Not at all. It just means that you believe them to be true. Here I want to focus on beliefs that we have about ourselves. There are helpful beliefs and limiting beliefs. A helpful belief is something you believe that inspires you or could help you improve the quality of your life. An example of a helpful belief is, “I am confident that if I work hard, I can create a very successful business”. A limiting belief is something that holds you back from doing something, or lowers your confidence. An example of a limiting belief someone might have about themselves is, “I am not smart enough to create a successful business”.

It’s interesting that with either of those beliefs, the person does not really know if the belief is accurate. In other words, the person wouldn’t really know whether they actually could create a successful business. They really would just be guessing based on other beliefs they have.

What’s the purpose of having any belief that would hold you back? They are designed to protect you. For example, if you stood at the top of a tall building, it would be a good idea to have the belief that if you decided to jump off the building and land on the road, then you would be too weak to survive. If you believed that you wouldn’t be hurt at all from jumping, then you might decide to jump because it would be fun floating through the air. Even having a belief that you are not smart enough to create a successful business is designed to protect you. Creating a business takes a lot of time, energy, and often money. This belief is to protect you from losing those resources.

The problem is that in reality, some of our beliefs are harming us, even though they are all designed to help us. A lot of our negative beliefs are trying to protect us from the fear of failure. They are what cause us to not put our best efforts in. If you believe you will fail, you likely won’t even try. People often make a lot less money than they deserve because they believe that they are not worth any more. They would be afraid to ask their boss for a raise because they think the boss will certainly say no. Often these people really have no idea what the boss would do and are simply guessing. What about people who believe they aren’t attractive enough, successful enough, or interesting enough to date someone they really like. They often won’t ask and will never know.

Take a moment to write down 3 beliefs you have about yourself that you feel are limiting your life in some way. Think of things like, “I’m not smart enough to…” “I’m too old to…” “I’m too young to…” “I don’t have enough experience to…”. Recognizing and identifying these beliefs is the first step to changing them.

I will be writing more on beliefs very soon and how to control them to make a positive difference in our lives.

Please share your thoughts.

Andrew