14 Common Traits Of Highly Intelligent People

Several online sources define intelligence as the ability to achieve and apply knowledge, a definition which is very close to that of wisdom. Nevertheless, there is still a great difference between intelligence and wisdom. Intelligence has the aspect of “learning”, where a person expresses some form of superiority to others regarding their capacity for understanding, creativity, self-awareness, and problem solving among other qualities. Thus, when someone calls you as being intelligent, they are implying that you're special regarding brain function and general conduct.

A lot of people have done extensive research in terms of what makes an individual intelligent. It's important to understand that everyone has some level of intelligence and everyone has the potential grow their intelligence to high levels.

So, here are some of the traits that intelligent people share. Which ones do you have and which ones do you need to develop?

1) They Understand Limits

Highly intelligent people are always the first ones to say they don't know something. Less intelligent people try to avoid this phrase because they fear that others will perceive them as dumb. Highly intelligent people realize that it's impossible to know everything about everything. These individuals also understand that there is a wealth of knowledge to everything and that they would be lucky to simply know some of it. So, when asked a question that they don’t know the answer to, they will just say “I don’t know.” Nevertheless, there is also a good chance that they'll find out the answer if they needed to.

2. They Love Learning

Most people consider Apple’s famous co-founder Steve Jobs as highly intelligent. After all, he managed to revolutionize the personal computing industry and bring the iPod into existence. As a matter of fact, Jobs loved learning, despite he dropped out of college. He told junior employees that if they wanted to get ahead, it was critical to continue learning out of the classroom. Jobs and several other brilliant business leaders realized that smart people love learning, even if that had nothing to do with credit or college. Highly intelligent people value that learning can lead to new ideas and realizations about the world around them.

3. They Are Open-Minded

Highly intelligent people are more open-minded about new ideas or different ways of thinking. Since they value logic above traits like untested loyalty, they are much more likely to be open-minded. For example, highly intelligent people are less likely to be close-minded regarding social issues such as race, gender, and sexual identity. They realize both the biological and social components of such issues, and they also respect human rights. Because they don't just follow whatever they think or have been told, they continue to stay more open-minded and be ready to change their views. If you have a genuinely innovative idea, they’ll listen to it even if it conflicts with their own.

4. They Have A Sense Of Humor

Highly intelligent people tend to have a better sense of humor than others, even though sometimes their jokes are not as funny as they want them to be for those with average intelligence. Since highly intelligent people can better understand things and perceive social situations, they are able to quickly come up with jokes. As a personality trait, being funny is connected to strong verbal communication skills. So for people who primarily rely on verbal communication and have developed such skills well, highly intelligent people will be able to make you laugh.

5. They Make Mistakes And Learn From Them

It's common to find people hurting because of a mistake they've made a long while back, a quality that we usually associate with certain personality types. Nevertheless, it will surprise you to learn that dwelling on a mistake indicates that the person in question may be lacking in intelligence. This may seem like an insult to emotional people, but that's hardly the intention. Highly intelligent people strive to learn as much as possible from their mistakes and move on. Even though Thomas Edison’s teacher in his early years believed that he was “too stupid to learn anything,” we now look back at him as one of the greatest inventors of the 19th century. He regarded all his failures at making a light bulb into a thousand different ways of not making a light-bulb, and then finally made the light bulb.

6. They Adapt With Ease

They say that you can't teach an old dog new tricks, and that's the same attitude that less smart people walk around with. To a greater extent, all human beings should strive to hold on to the moral standards that the earlier generations set for them, but they can always look into ways of improving their lives. Highly intelligent people are also adaptable which means they can live and excel in any environment they find themselves in, and they can do so without compromising the principles that make them who they are. Being able to adapt to any situation is a certain sign of high intelligence and suggests success is attainable no matter the scenario a person finds oneself in.

7. They Are Problem Solvers

According to Jimmy Johnson, the Hall of Fame NFL coach, “success happens when opportunity meets preparation.” His quote is so true that highly successful people naturally live by it, some of them without even having heard of it. People who just believe in luck and live hoping that tomorrow they'll get better luck often don't achieve much. Such people don't fall into the category of the highly smart as they value luck more than intelligence and effort. Intelligent people are problem solvers, and it's common to find them attracted to problems which other people think cannot be solved. Intelligent people analyze each situation they find in their way and apply the knowledge they have to tackle it. There are those who dream about winning the lottery, while there are also those who go out and become millionaires by trying on their own.

8. They Have Self Control

Do you remember learning about the experiment with self-control in rats? The researchers tested the rats' self-control by watching the difference when they offered the animals a small treat now or two treats a little later. In rats and humans, those individuals who can see the long-term and wait for the better reward have more discipline and self-control. That's a sign of a highly intelligent individual who can put aside immediate desires for something bigger later. Unfortunately, most of the rats (as well as humans) couldn’t wait for the better payout and chose the immediate treat.

9. They Are Intuitive

Highly intelligent people have a great sense of intuition. That doesn’t mean that they have any psychic abilities, but that they're simply more in tune with the emotions and actions of other people around them. These individuals quickly recognize when somebody needs a person to talk to or when their mood and attitude changes suddenly, after, for instance, a phone call. This can make highly intelligent people great friends to have for support, listening, and providing smart solutions for any problem. Highly intelligent people will notice changes in your behavior even if they don’t mention anything to you about it.

10. They Take Calculated Risks

Have you ever heard of people who blow away all their money on a series of bets or just on a single bet? Such people don't know how to calculate their risks and, so, they lack in intelligence. Taking a risk is not a bad thing; actually, people who don't take any risks at all usually live extremely boring lives. However, intelligent people spend time on researching and calculating before taking the risk. Even though several intelligent people have fallen into bankruptcy sometimes, they usually rose up to show that their ventures were worth the hustle. When smart people fall, they get right back up again and finally their persistence pays off.

11. They Are Humble

Whether you believe it or not, pride usually comes before a failure, and smart people know this very well. Intelligence dictates that it's better for someone to be moved from the back seats to the front because of how significant they are, as opposed to being sent to the back because they were sitting on somebody else’s reserved space. Humility isn't letting other people trample over you; it's more of knowing that you don't need to prove your value to anybody because you perfectly realize who you are. A humble person is without a doubt an intelligent one.

12. They Enjoy Their Own Company

This isn't to say that all the outgoing and extroverted people who are always in the company of others are less clever, it simply means that the highly intelligent ones enjoy and make good use of their alone time. It's often difficult for someone to think much if they are always in the company of people who never encourage them to strive to become better every day. However, intelligence dictates bettering oneself on a regular basis. The majority of inventors who came up with the inventions that most people take for granted hatched their ideas, came up with their concepts and applied them in the privacy of their work-space.

13. They Are Curious

Do you find those kids who ask so many questions about everything to be annoying? Some of these children will grow up and become curious adults who want to learn more about things that the rest of us consider ordinary. Nevertheless, something you should know about those people is that it is likely that they're highly intelligent. Even though they say that curiosity killed the cat, people owe all the technological and all other advancements to those who dared to ask questions and search for answers.

14. They Disagree With Other People

Disagreements often arise due to a misunderstanding among people, and this is usually the case between a smart and a less smart person. Intelligent people view things from a different perspective. That's why they will frequently question trends and customs that others hold strong to. Their questions may rub off on the conventional thinkers in the wrong way. If a friend of yours often gets into disagreements with others, the problem may not be their stubbornness; they might just be too intelligent for the people around them.