It’s a concept that can be difficult to come to terms with, but like it or not our intellect (or our perceived intellect) can often work against us in life. The indications are all there once you have the eyes to see them. Have you fell into the “I think I’m too smart for my own good” trap? Don’t worry the big part of correcting a mistake is realizing it exists! Check out these 5 signs you are not as smart as you think you are and see if any or all apply to you. Coming quickly to terms with them and correcting this kind of self-defeating behavior can make you truly smarter fast! And perhaps more importantly, much happier too. Lack of Professional Success Opinions are by their nature subjective – think of beauty as being in the eyes of the beholder as a classic example – while end results, like numbers in a pay check are very much objective and impossible to argue with. Smart people leverage their intelligence into professional success. If you are thirty five years old, consider yourself brilliant yet are living in your parent’s basement it’s pretty clear you are not as smart as you think you are. Smart people figure out a way to make money not make excuses! Smart people, truly smart people that is, don’t spend every waking moment wasted in argument, conflict and debate. The need to prove how correct you are at the expense of co-workers, friends, family and the majority of people you meet on the street reveals a insecurity that truly intelligent people rarely have. It’s a flashing neon sign that tells the world you are not nearly as smart as you think you are! Avoid unneeded conflict and watch the energy you save get utilized for positive projects and to fuel constructive behavior. Now that’s a sign you are getting smarter! You Are Always Rushing Around and Way too Busy Do you find most of your days fighting the clock and running from crisis to crisis? Time and energy management is a skill all truly smart people quickly learn to manage to make the most out of life, minimize stress and out produce their less smart peers. Ask yourself if you are so intelligent why are you always running around in a panic like a chicken without a head? Occasional bouts of overwork may be unavoidable aspects of our professional or home lives, certainly, but if this is a reoccurring nightmare you are hardly as smart as you may like to think you are. Smart people know this is hardly a way to live or to produce up to a person’s true highest potential! You Talk Much More than You Listen What do you think of when you are around someone who just won’t stop talking to even catch a breath? Don’t images of scam artists, unscrupulous used car salesmen and high school air heads flash to mind? Certainly not people with true intelligence who understand there’s much more benefit and lasting power in the sometimes lost art of listening rather than talking. Which category do you most often fall it – the endless babbler or the active listener? The answer says a great deal about just how smart you really are. Listen more and talk less. Your Reading Habits are Hardly Challenging If you needed to find one top quality shared by all truly intelligent people you could do much worse than focusing on the love of reading. Real reading about difficult and thought provoking subjects – not escapist low brow entertainment. Reading is an essential tool in the quest for continued self development and it’s embraced by all the truly smart. If you consider yourself in this category, but spend your free time zoned out in front of the television or wasting time reading foolish crime novels it may be time to reconsider. A few hours of challenging reading a night can help expand your intelligence and creativity in astoundingly magical ways and move you quickly towards being smart for real. Adopting this habit alone can be a true game changer you will have no choice, but to thank yourself for a year from now. Don’t hesitate to act on it if you’d like to be smart rather than just think you are smart!