How to Go From Slacker to Genius in 7 Simple Steps

I’ve had the pleasure of being called smart over the years.

And while I’m thankful for the kind words and natural gifts I’ve been given, people overlook the effort it takes to excel mentally.

Sure you have a few geniuses who are born with incredible raw talent. But often times it’s what you do from your starting point that determines your intelligence.

I remember classmates looking at me like I was one of those rare geniuses when I was younger though. They would get poor grades and then turn to me with a frown saying, “I wish I was smart like you”.

But if their words hadn’t frozen me then, I would have told them, “You can be”.

I never thought of myself as someone special. I just focused on what I thought was important.

So today I’ll show you how to do the same thing—I’ll show you how to become smart.

Now when I say that, I don’t mean that you’ll know everything. That’s impossible and no one wants that anyway.

This article will focus on building knowledge in a specific area. It will show you how to become the real genius who sees a return.

It’s a process I’ve used to learn all throughout my life, and I guarantee it will work for you.

Step #1: Set Your Aim

Before you turn into a genius, you need to make a smart decision:

You have to choose where you want to go.

You may not think this part is significant now but this choice is the most important part of the process.

It’s setting a target to aim for. And bull’s-eyes don’t matter if the target is too close.

You have to choose a field that’s worthy of your time. And for it to be worthy of your time, you need to get a return from it. It doesn’t have to be a financial one but you do need to get something out of it.

That’s why this guide will focus on building depth of knowledge instead of breadth. Most people gather a wide range of information but they don’t build enough depth in one area to see the benefit.

I do the opposite.

It’s funny when people call me smart. Truth is, I’m only good with about three subjects—maybe four tops. Ask me something outside that range and I hit Google with the quickness.

I don’t pretend to know everything. And I’d be wary of any “genius” who does.

The Three Questions

So when you’re ready to choose your field, take these 3 points into consideration:

1. Natural Skills: Does this field use your natural skillset?

If the answer is no, move on.

You can grow in a field like that, but there’s no need to swim upstream.

Take a minute to reflect here first if you don’t have an idea yet. It’s best to know who you are before you decide what you want.

Take me for example—I’m a thinker. I do my best work when I lockdown and focus, but I also like interacting with others.

HFE is an outlet where I do both. This site allows me to work alone and still interact with people just like you.

I wouldn’t survive in a field that always required teamwork. But being a hermit would drive me crazy.

That’s why this step is so important.

You have to find what meets your needs before you can meet the needs of others.

2. Payoff: Will your growth be rewarded?

This is the question a lot of college students fail to answer. And as a result, many of them choose dead end majors.

They don’t understand that from a financial perspective, this question is about how easy it is to replace you.

That’s why a bachelor’s degree in psychology doesn’t mean much. I would know just as much as a psychology grad in a year of dedicated reading.

But if you look at something like engineering, or any other STEM field, it’s a different story. I know I’m in a long line of people preaching the benefits of STEM, but colleges have tools and resources that are crucial to becoming an engineer. It would be tough for anyone to replicate that experience on their own.

So always keep that question in mind: How easily can I be replaced?

3. Enjoyment: Do you enjoy your field?

Your answer won’t always be “yes” here, but there’s no rule that says work has to depress you.

This question is somewhat related to the natural skills one. If you’re good at something, you tend to enjoy it.

The problem is, some people enjoy things they’re terrible at. And others are great at things they can’t stand. Maybe self-awareness is the real issue here, but either way it’s a bad fit.

It doesn’t matter how much you earn or how good you are at what you do—this is a life or death choice here. Choose something you don’t enjoy and it’ll kill you on the inside.

So make the right decision now so you’re not miserable for years.

Step #2: Get Out of Your Way

The first step to improving at anything is to develop the right mindset.

I won’t repeat the popular lie here that you can do anything you set your mind to, but people do underestimate how much they can improve through practice. That’s why you need to develop a growth mindset.

People with a growth mindset view their skills as a foundation to improve upon. And they know they can mold their weaknesses into strengths.

Now compare that to a fixed mindset that says you can only use what you were born with or what comes easy to you. This fixed style of thinking says you won’t be great at anything unless you have a record of past success in it.

It’s no surprise that the majority of the population thinks in this fixed way. That’s why change is foreign to most people. They expect growth to happen without any effort. Like time will do the work itself.

Avoid fixed thinking if you plan on learning anything. If you don’t believe you can improve, you’ve already sabotaged your attempts to do so.

Always give yourself a chance. Set a goal for where you want to be and commit to it.

Once you get out of your own way, you’ll see that you were the only one standing there.

Step #3: Change Your Surroundings

This step is also about removing barriers.

A growth mindset takes care of the mental ones, but now you need to remove the barriers in your environment.

What I mean is that you should remove all people and distractions that discourage your improvement. You need to shape your environment into one that has a good impact.

Don’t underestimate the influence of the words you hear to daily. What you consume in your environment will always have an impact on you.

Hanging around people who drink and watch TV all day will tempt you to do the same. So find people who appreciate better pursuits instead.

I’m not telling you to ruthlessly cut off old friends, but spend less time with them if they’re a bad influence. Start moving away from them in real life and especially on social media.

If they think your pursuit of knowledge is a dumb idea, start walking. And if your friends look down on people who treasure life, it’s time to say goodbye.

Don’t confuse this with an elitist attitude though. You’re not better than anyone. What I’m stressing here is the influence the people closest to you have on your decisions.

They say you become like the five people you spend the most time with and it’s true. Look around and you’ll see all the businessmen with other businessmen. All the bodybuilders with other bodybuilders. All the frat boys with other frat boys.

Step back and ask yourself if you really want to be the person your friends are.

That question may seem mean at first, but what’s really mean is when the people you considered friends discourage you from being who you want to be.

They won’t make straightforward comments saying your ideas are ridiculous. You’ll hear it in their passive aggressive tone instead. It’ll be the subtle statements that let you know they don’t approve of what you’re doing. Those are what will tear you down over time.

Find people who build you up instead. Form an environment where both you and your crew can grow.

Step #4: READ

It doesn’t matter if you want to make better grades, advance in your industry, or learn how to manage your finances:

You have to read.

Why is reading so important?

Because words are powerful. They’re much more than letters on a page.

When you read, you’re not restricting yourself to the knowledge in your environment. You’re free to study the minds of famous inventors, entrepreneurs, and scientists.

And the great thing about reading on your own time is that you don’t have to bother with boring material either. You’re free to learn from any source.

If you’re reading this, it means you have access to the Internet. And with the Internet, you don’t have an excuse to not read.

Almost all of us have powerful computers in our pockets, and yet we only use them to play games.

Stop wasting time on apps that make money for someone else. If you’re going to consume content anyway, it might as well be something that builds you up.

Read books. Read articles on sites like this. Read interviews of people in your industry.

There’s material out there for anything you want to learn, but you have to take the initiative to find it.

If you don’t know where to start, just Google something. No, you won’t find the best material at first, but you’ll be on the path to finding what you’re looking for.

Once you find some good sources and get in the habit of reading, you won’t be able to stop. I couldn’t stand reading when I was younger but now it’s all I do.

And don’t worry if others laugh at your new habit. They probably paid thousands in student loans to take courses based on books.

Step #5: Repeat, Repeat, Repeat

So how do you keep all this in your head?

Repetition.

People say repetition isn’t good for learning because it’s just memorization. But what these people are referring to is short term memory.

You know you haven’t learned anything when you cram for a test. That’s not what I mean here.

What I’m talking about is training the mind to think the way you want it to. And the only way to do that is to keep telling it what you want to know.

The brain is a muscle, and like any other muscle, it works best when you repeatedly expose it to an activity. It’s what we call muscle memory.

For example, you get better at doing push-ups simply by doing more push-ups.

The brain works the same way.

You challenge yourself with new material until you reach a new level of understanding. And the effort you put into that process is what strengthens your mind.

Case in point, I was an underachiever my first years in college, but when I started taking my classes seriously, I became the master of repetition.

Instead of waiting till the week of an exam to study, I looked over the material weeks in advance. I read from my books and took my own notes. Then I took the class notes from the instructor and copied them word for word.

Once I had both sets of notes, I took them and combined them into a condensed set of concepts. Then I took those concepts, summarized them on an index card, and repeated those steps for every class.

The process took me hours to complete, but it was worth it. I can still tell you just about everything I learned back then.

Tests were a breeze because I studied at a more intense level than what was required. And I knew those concepts like the back of my hand.

You don’t have to go to the lengths I went to then, but always practice with repetition if you want to be at your best.

Step #6: Convert Thoughts into Action

Ideas without action steal real estate in your head. And if you keep filling your brain with theoreticals it’ll be a ghost town up there.

So don’t worry about trying to sound smart. Find knowledge you can actually use.

Once you find something you can apply, you’ll be eager to see it in action. And pretty soon you’ll form a thought pattern that searches for opportunities to use what you know.

Those papers from your English class might help you write more persuasive emails. That scientific method will come in handy when you don’t know why your car is stalling. And that new marketing technique might help you sell something of your own.

It’s all about making connections to real life. A level of understanding that can apply complex ideas to common activities is evidence of a sharp mind.

So don’t overlook this point. It’s what allows you to be the bridge between what you know and the people who need it the most.

Step #7: Tell ‘em What You Know

Speaking of being the bridge, teaching is another way to do just that.

You don’t have to do it in a formal setting—teaching can have a lot of responsibility depending on what you’re talking about and some people can’t handle that—but you do need to find a way to discuss what you’ve learned with others.

Why?

Because teaching gets you out of your comfort zone and accelerates the learning process. If you don’t know something, it will be obvious when you try to teach it.

Now don’t let that scare you off. Figuring out what you don’t know is one of the first steps to mastering anything.

But before you dive into mastery, you need to realize that your students know even less than you. So you’ll need to simplify what you’ve learned.

You can’t expect someone at a lower level of understanding to grasp something at your level. People love using jargon that’s supposed to make them sound smart, but all it does is alienate their audience.

Remember that if you can’t explain it to a fifth grader, you don’t know it well enough.

And even when you clearly explain everything, your students will still ask questions that you’ll have to answer on the fly. Those will be an annoyance at first but they’ll help more than you think.

Those questions will test your ability to grab information at a moment’s notice, and they’ll prepare you for any tests or projects where you might be caught off guard.

But with all that said, I think it’s safe to say that the benefits of teaching are numerous.

Do it right, and you’ll learn even more than your students.