The Good Habits (And Bad Habits) Of Really Smart People [Infographic]

Are you a smart person? I suppose everyone wants to answer yes to that question. There are different kinds and different degrees of smartness. Everyone I know is smart in one particular area of life, so from that perspective, we are all smart. For the purpose of this article, smartness is based on IQ points. This is about about the good habits (and the bad habits) of people with a high IQ. It seems there are some patterns, and things to watch out for if you are a smart person.

Smart people have many good habits. They are usually avid readers, they set goals, they are very self-disciplined and they even think about thinking. Smart people aren’t off the hook when it comes to bad habits though. If you have a high IQ, you may have a predisposition to bing drink, take drugs, and rob your body of sleep. You might also be very anxious or have an anxiety disorder, which can lead to depression, smoking and neuroticism.

All of this information comes to us in an infographic called The Good And Bad Habits Of Smart People (by online-phd-programs.org). One thing this infographic points out about goal setting, which I think is interesting, is that there is a difference between written and non-written goals. It reminds me of that famous study of Harvard MBAs in the book What They Don’t Teach You At Harvard Business School. I’ve written about this study before. It took decades to complete, and the researchers came to an insightful conclusion.

According to that study, 3% of people have written goals and a written plan to achieve them. 13% of people have goals, but they aren’t written down. 84% of people have no goals at all. The 3% who wrote down their goals achieved them. Even more interesting is that the 3% of people who wrote down their goals also ended up earning 10 times more money than the other 97% combined. That is definitely one of the many good habits we can all learn from smart people. Mental note to self: Write down goals. If you want to read more on this topic, you can click over to Top 10 Smartest People Alive Today. Enjoy!