Disclaimer: These are all suggestions. Many people have multiple intelligences, some of which might cancel out each other’s deficiencies. Each intelligence type could be present but express itself differently in your character and behavior. We are not here to restrict but to guide. In the end, you can do whatever you enjoy.
Why are we here? How should this situation be handled? What is fair, what is morally correct? What is our purpose? Where do we go after death? Who am I?
Questions which have probably crossed all of our paths at some point in our lives. Questions to which most of us might never find an answer, an explanation. Questions which have bothered human beings since the dawn of time. Questions too hard for most of us to know where to even begin – well, for most of us. But every now and then, there is an individual capable of, and willing to, understand and reveal the truth about all of these questions. These people are gifted with existential intelligence.
Even if only sometimes considered its own type of intelligence, we want to include existential intelligence in our series. So, let’s have a look at these individuals’ strengths and weaknesses, how to improve, and how to build a life.
Strengths:
As you might have guessed already, individuals with high scores in existential intelligence show strong philosophical thinking skills. This includes evaluation, criticism, abstraction, logic, and questioning current systems.
Individuals with high scores in existential intelligence are able to consider various perspectives and opinions, and look at difficult situations from a subjective as well as objective point of view. This is one crucial aspect of their excellent philosophical thinking.
They believe in finding truth, and they thrive in understanding their surroundings. This is a way of thinking crucial in moving forward in life. Understanding is the first step in learning, and learning is the first step in evolving.
Another important aspect is that these individuals are excellent at understanding abstract concepts. This frees them to investigate the unknown, look into what could be, consider every detail, and model the world around them. They connect their abstract thoughts to real-life questions.
All of these skills are the reason these individuals hold the ability to ponder the big questions of life – a skill helpful in every area of life, as there is no such problem too big for them to investigate. They inspire and empower, giving perspectives and ideas, and they encourage you to live continuously and question what’s around you.
Areas for Improvement:
As existentially intelligent people can sometimes lose themselves in abstract situations and questions, some of them might struggle with practical day-to-day tasks. You are forward-driven and theoretical; this is why practical work may be an area in which you could improve.
Besides that, always getting hung up on the big questions of life can potentially lead to the simple things every day has to offer feeling meaningless and uninteresting. Don’t let your inquisitive and critical mind stop you from experiencing excitement in your everyday life.
Are you recognizing yourself or some parts of you? Then congratulations on identifying your or one of your intelligence types. With that, you’ve accomplished step one of your journey: determining your intelligence. But, even if that’s wonderful to hear, you may be asking, what should I do now? Let’s head over to step two: how to embrace your strengths and work on your weak spots.
How to Refine and Embrace Strengths:
To refine your skill, your number one tip is to practice critical thinking. To do that, you need to question what’s given, you have to be able to form your own opinion. It is important for you to learn not to simply adapt to what you hear, but to think critically and draw connections.
To start, maybe choose one question you want to investigate. This question can be a big existential one or just one you are currently interested in; it doesn’t matter, because at first, we’ll train your critical eye.
If you’ve found your question, let your thoughts flow. You might want to get a book to write in, or a specific blog. Answer your question as far as you can, writing down everything that comes to mind. Anything you think could be related to finding the answer to your problem.
Try to be structured, but don’t think any of your thoughts are wrong or irrelevant.
Take your time to finish these steps. This can take 10 minutes or 10 days, however long it takes for you to feel satisfied with your answer
Afterwards is where the critical thinking starts. Gather information, opinions, and perspectives on your topic. Collect this information through a variety of ways, whether by reading, talking with colleagues or friends, or watching movies.
Note down what you’ve heard, and after you finish, compare it with what you initially came up with. Evaluate your own thoughts and the perspectives you’ve collected. Combine them or don’t; consider everything critically and adjust if something changes your mind or inspires you to add something new.
Redo this for the same question using different sources, or choose a new question.
How is this practice helpful? It is important that you form your own opinion first. Otherwise, you might simply adapt what you read or hear. This is not because you are stupid or lack critical thinking skills, but because most theories and ideas aren’t simply based on nothing. Most theories are grounded and well explained, making them agreeable and appear right.
That’s why you need to understand your own perspective before getting to know others’. Therefore, you won’t lose yourself. You might come up with aspects others haven’t considered or valued as important as you do.
Once you’ve established your own opinion, it can be just as informative as it is interesting and inspiring for you to engage in philosophical discussions. Maybe join a club or a forum and exchange your thoughts with others, learning to defend and explain your opinion and consider others’ opinions.
Lastly, practice meditation and mindfulness. These two practices can lead to understanding yourself as an individual. Channel your thoughts and feelings – something very important in considering various points of view. Besides that, the spiritual aspect of life is one potentially offering a lot of answers to existential questions. There is no reason not to investigate every possibility.
How to Work on Areas for Improvement:
To enhance your everyday practical skills, you can enhance and build routine activities. These will provide structure and ease the difficulty of tackling day-to-day tasks.
Another thing that goes hand in hand with structure is organization. Developing organizational skills will help you keep your surroundings clean. How is this helpful? I guess you haven’t read the last post: ‘Get to Know Yourself! – 6 Things That Reveal More About You Than You Think’, in which we explained that the state of your environment has a huge impact on your mind. So, keep your room clean to keep your thoughts organized.
Practice mindfulness in daily tasks to acknowledge their beauty. Of course, not every task will be fun and enjoyable, but when seen from a different perspective, many things can be inspiring and beautiful. Try to find these perspectives, and with that, find your source of everyday joy while training your skill.
Now that we’ve evaluated your strengths and areas for improvement, let’s apply all that to the real world. First of all, want to make money? Want to have fun? Here are some jobs and hobbies that align very well with this type of intelligence.
Jobs Aligning with This Intelligence Type:
Jobs aligning with this intelligence type spread across the realm of arts, focused on thinking and inspiring. As an existentially intelligent individual, you’d probably excel at being a philosopher, theologian, professor, writer, or counselor. All of these give you the freedom to think and investigate the existential questions keeping you up at night. Besides that, you could work as a spiritual guide, depending on the way you perceive our existence.
Hobbies Aligning with This Intelligence Type:
For hobbies, you might enjoy, reading. More specifically, you might enjoy reading philosophical literature or other philosophical theories. These could help you gather different perspectives and lead to reinterpretation in your own work.
With own work, I’ve already implied what’s coming next: writing. Just thinking about the questions on your mind is fun for a while, but at some point, you might want to share what you’ve come up with. Writing could be a hobby of yours, allowing you to share your thoughts with a broader audience and maybe find individuals who would want to discuss with you on a deeper level.
Lastly, another hobby you might enjoy, potentially opening doors to a different level of existence, is meditating. This allows you to calm down and focus on your thoughts, explore yourself, and gain insight into yourself.
Now you have a complete guide on what defines your intelligence, your strengths and areas for improvement, the jobs and hobbies you can engage in – but what now? You can refine your strengths for a job you need to train for years. You can improve areas where you may have some deficiencies, but how is that helpful? What benefit does this knowledge provide here and now? Let’s have a look at the effect of existential intelligence in everyday life and its personal and societal impact.
Existential Intelligence in Everyday Life:
In everyday life, your excellent philosophical thinking skills allow you to contemplate something’s meaning, enabling you to deeply look into a problem at hand.
You are great at discussing, especially in terms of ethical dilemmas, existential questions, or spiritual beliefs. You are open-minded and driven toward getting to know every truth this world has to offer.
You might be spiritual and great at meditating. In everyday life, this allows you to understand yourself and control your behavior in each upcoming situation.
You have a strong belief system. Having thought about various ethical questions you’ve come up with your beliefs and you stick to them. This makes you appear strong minded and consistent. A profound system provides direction in everyday life.
As we’ve said before, understanding is the first step toward learning. You want to understand, which leaves you to learn truly anything in life as long as you want to.
Societal and Personal Impact of Existential Intelligence:
To society, your thoughts and ideas are crucial. As we’ve said, many people aren’t able to do what seems so natural to you. Many people aren’t able to determine an answer to those great questions that have been bothering humanity for ages. Yet, these questions are just as important to those individuals. We all need your critical, analytical thinking to move forward, to keep questioning, to stay true to ourselves and our beliefs, to protect ourselves, and to live consciously – we all need your ideas to understand our true nature.
You are empowering society.
Personally, you’ll see that this type of intelligence can have a very dual component. It can energize you to investigate and explore, but it can also lead you to poison your perception of reality. There is no single answer, no right or wrong; considering different opinions will help you to see the beauty in every aspect of life, even the darker ones. Remember, everything needs balance. Understand your own purpose, find your answer to who you are and what life’s meaning is, and then, use that understanding to unlock your full potential.
You have a great gift – the ability to show what’s wrong and direct us toward the light. Empower and inspire, question and unfold, grow and take others with you. Stay open-minded and curious, investigating every aspect life has to offer. Grow spiritually and enhance your mental well-being.