Intelligence is often considered how well you score on tests or what your grades are in school. In the 1900's, French psychologist Alfred Binet tried to come up with some kind of measure that would predict the success or failure of children in the primary grades of schools. The result was the forerunner of the standard IQ test we use today. This gave us a dimension of mental ability by which we could compare everyone. In the 1980's, Harvard University psychologist, Howard Gardner had a pluralistic view of the mind, and recognized the many discrete facets of cognition. Gardner defines intelligences as the ability to solve problems or to fashion products that are valued in one or more cultural settings. (Gardner) He acknowledged that people have different cognitive strengths as well as different cognitive styles. Gardner bases his view in part on findings from sciences that were nonexistent in Binet's time. The first is cognitive. Out of this came Gardner's "theory of multiple intelligences." (Gardner)

Instead of looking for a correlation between tests, we should look instead to how people develop skills that are pertinent in their culture. When a child learns to play the piano, he is learning several skills. Will the training he received learning the piano skills enhance his mathematics skills, or vise versa? The standard IQ test measures how intelligent a person is based, traditionally, on math and English. All other areas that a person may excel at or have natural ability in are not taken into consideration. Each individual is unique. We all have different physical features - we are not all blue eyed, brown-haired, five-foot tall men. We each have different personalities - some people are jokesters and comedians while others are quiet, reserved and serious. We all have our own set of talents, gifts, and abilities. Not everyone will excel in math and language. Why should we compare how smart children are or how successful they will be based on a test that measures only two aspects of who that little child is?

Gardner has identified eight intelligences. These areas in a culture are valued as having the ability to solve a problem or create a product in a particular way. The intelligences are like talents and gifts in that there are many combinations possible. Intelligences can also be strengthened. How readily the improvement occurs depends upon the biology of the persons' brain and the teacher that the culture gave the person. Gardners' eight intelligences are:

Linguistic - the ability to use language to describe events, to build trust and rapport, to develop logical arguments and use rhetoric, or to be expressive and metaphoric. Possible vocations that use linguistic intelligence include journalism, administrator, contractor, salesperson, clergy, counselors, lawyers, professor, philosopher, playwright, poet, advertising copywriter and novelist.

Logical-Mathematical - the ability to use numbers to compute and describe, to use mathematical concepts to make conjectures, to apply mathematics in personal daily life, to apply mathematics to data and construct arguments, to be sensitive to the patterns, symmetry, logic, and aesthetics of mathematics, and to solve problems in design and modeling. Possible vocations that use the logical-mathematics intelligence include accountant, bookkeeper, statistician, trades person, homemaker, computer programmer, scientist, composer, engineer, inventor, or designer.

Musical - the ability to understand and develop musical technique, to respond emotionally to music and to work together to use music to meet the needs of others, to interpret musical forms and ideas, and to create imaginative and expressive performances and compositions. Possible vocations that use the musical intelligence include technician, music teacher, instrument maker, choral, band, and orchestral performer or conductor, music critic, aficionado, music collector, composer, conductor, and individual or small group performer.

Spatial - the ability to perceive and represent the visual-spatial world accurately, to arrange color, line, shape, form and space to meet the needs of others, to interpret and graphically represent visual or spatial ideas, to transform visual or spatial ideas into imaginative and expressive creations. Possible vocations that use spatial intelligence include illustrator, artist, guide, photographer, interior decorator, painter, clothing designer, weaver, builder, architect, art critic, inventor, or cinematographer.
Bodily-Kinesthetic - the ability to use the body and tools to take effective action or to construct or repair, to build rapport to console and persuade, and to support others, to plan strategically or to critique the actions of the body, to appreciate the aesthetics of the body and to use those values to create new forms of expression. Possible vocations that use the bodily-kinesthetic intelligence include mechanic, trainer, contractor, craftsperson, tool and dye maker, coach, counselor, salesperson, sports analyst, professional athlete, dance critic, sculptor, choreographer, actor, dancer or puppeteer.

Interpersonal - the ability to organize people and to communicate clearly what needs to be done, to use empathy to help others and to solve problems, to discriminate and interpret among different kinds of interpersonal clues, and to influence and inspire others to work toward a common goal. Possible vocations that use the interpersonal intelligence include administrator, manager, politician, social worker, doctor, nurse, therapist, teacher, sociologist, psychologist, psychotherapist, consultant, charismatic leader, politician, and evangelist.

Intrapersonal - the ability to assess one's own strengths, weaknesses, talents, and interests and use them to set goals, to understand oneself to be of service to others, to form and develop concepts and theories based on an examination of oneself, and to reflect on one's inner moods, intuitions, and temperament and to use them to create or express a personal view. Possible vocations that use the intrapersonal intelligence include planner, small business owner, psychologist, artist, religious leader, and writer.

Naturalist* - the ability to recognize and classify plants, minerals, and animals, including rocks and grass and all variety of flora and fauna, and to recognize cultural artifacts like cars and sneakers. Possible vocations that use the naturalist intelligence include conservation, biologist, teacher, lobbyist, and park service. *Because this is a recent addition to the Intelligences, we have not yet included it in the Multiple Intelligence Tests our site features.

Multiple intelligence is a natural way to structure learning. All the aspects of the person are taught to, meaning can be extracted, and applications can be made to life. The children in our classrooms are multifaceted and have many abilities. We as teachers need to give the children the skills and the opportunity to use their abilities and enhance them throughout their life.

Five dimensions are involved in forming the human personality. These are:
1) physical self, 2) energy self, 3) intellectual self, 4) mental self, and 5) blissful self.
Well-integrated personality is the sum total of harmonious expression of these five dimensions.
Physical self relates to our senses. Proper nourishment and growth of physical faculties is essential by way of balanced diet, recreation, music, and care and concern from near and dear ones. A simple pat on the back for any achievement in life goes a long way to build up confidence. However, discretion and discrimination are the key words in this regard. Otherwise, there is every chance that senses would create havoc by way of infatuation and attachment to the sense objects.
Energy self is somewhat subtler than the first. It relates to metabolism and the gross manifestations of energy (Prana), for insatnce the act of breathing. The control of Prana is achieved by control of anger, anxiety, and restlessness.
Intellectual self concerns with discriminative power and knowledge, what we call "buddhi". In addition to sincere and formal studies, reading other books like biographies of great and noble persons and invigorating literature helps us develop this faculty.
Mental self is related to stress and psychology. Here selflessness, control, concentration, and calmness of mind plays essential role.
Anandamaya Kosha or blissful self is the function of state of being. It calls for remaining calm and unaffected, nay to remain happy, in all the frivolities of world, in neck break competition and struggle, in calamities and disasters, in suffering and loss, in failure and success.

The five fold method to attain to such state of heightened perfection and purity are a) self-effort, b) self-control, c) self-reliance, d) self-sacrifice, and e) self-knowledge. Next, a practical program is needed to make this 'intellectual gymnastic' real in our lives. The simple action plan, to start with, consists of daily physical exercise for ten minutes, reading good literature for half an hour, sincere prayers for two to five minutes, and meditation and yoga for about ten minutes.

Concentration and Meditation

Meditation or dhyana comes after 'dharana' and before 'samadhi' as per the eight-fold practice of Patanjali Yoga. Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, dhyana, and samadhi are the eight aspects.

I feel the main emphasis should start from Pratyahara. It means withdrawing our internal sense organs from the external sense objects. For example, our sense organ of taste runs after tasty food, which is sense object; pratyahara means not to allow the sense of taste to succumb to such temptations. The same should be the case with sense of touch, smell, vision, and hearing. We should be able to control our senses. This is a form of conscious detachment of mind from the objects of temptations. With practice, pratyahara is possible.

Next is dharana. It means trying to concentrate the mind on one thought or idea or form of the divine. (The mind would fail to concentrate on that which is not divine, and in a short period of time one will lose all interest in the yoga and in one's attempts at meditation.) Concentration of mind produces the feeling of truth in what one is concentrating upon. Thus, we get feeling of existence or truth in the idea, the thought or the form we are trying to concentrate upon (gradually of course).

By nature the mind is restless, chanchal. It does not want to stay fixed on one object or thought or idea. It wanders here and there. Many thoughts crowd our mind and we feel that we shall never be able to fix it on God. Moreover, many unwanted thoughts spring up from nowhere, and further put the sadhaka in get turmoil. Dirty, passionate, and evil thoughts come from our subconscious mind. There these thoughts lie hidden as samskaras. These are of this birth and many past births! Therefore, one should not get perturbed when bad thoughts come to surface during dhyana and dharana.

How to tackle this problem? One way is to neglect all thoughts, whether good or bad. Just see them as waves rising on the lake of mind, which are sure to subside in course of time. Thus we become sakshi - subject - of our own thought. The second method is to bring the desirable and noble thought or form, like the form of our Ishta, to mind again and again. This is practice or abhyasa.

Suppose there is an old ink pot with dried crust inside it. When we try to clean the ink pot, dirty water comes out initially. But if we continue to pour fresh water repeatedly dirt is cleared and the water coming out is cleaner and cleaner. Same is the case with evil thoughts at the time of meditation. By pouring fresh and clean water of mantra and concentrating on the form of our Ishta, we can soon get rid of bad and dirty thoughts over a period. This period can be one year, ten years, one birth or ten births! It depends on the efforts and Grace of the Guru. But one thing is sure; one has to go through the process, if not today, tomorrow! Therefore one should start today only, howsoever useless and difficult sadhana may appear.

By this we become masters of ourselves. There is no want or deficiency anymore. Feeling of loneliness and helplessness is replaced with feeling of identity with all and total fulfillment in life.

Noted author and self-worth teacher Eric Butterworth* says, "Poverty is a way of living and thinking, and not just a lack of money or things." When you couple his philosophy with the Eastern mysticism of "what you believe will become your reality" it becomes clear that obstacles to financial and personal success are largely self-created.

We once knew a man who, though hugely successful in business, and hugely contented on a personal level, claimed to be blessed with ignorance. He was ignorant of what he could not accomplish -therefore he accomplished much during his lifetime. This man's potential was not stifled by the abbreviated and misfigured word "can't." It simply did not figure into his thinking.

That's not to say this man did not experience failure. He had no magical Midas touch - his personal life, while appearing to be immensely satisfying for him, included the same trials and tragedies experienced by any other human being. Yet he seemed to regard failure as an educational asset, and adversity as an opportunity for progress.

While this man did not fear failure, he ultimately did not fear success.

To succeed means to be a winner - to be at or at least near the top of the heap. But along with winning comes a profound responsibility. A football team that takes the championship is suddenly saddled with a near crushing responsibility to carry on that level of play. A person who is successful in business is expected to continue being successful. Success carries with it an inherent burden.

Do you fear the burden of success?

Success is only achieved through progress, and progress is only achieved through risk. A mushroom never takes a risk. It hides underground until conditions are perfect, and then emerges for only a short while. It never transmutes - never changing - remaining forever a mushroom.

Humans fear risk because it involves dealing with unknown concepts and quantities. We're not sure what will happen if we take action, and that is a frightening concept in and of itself.

Unfortunately, when we fear the risk of taking action, we relegate ourselves to remaining underground with the mushrooms - to be waiting forever for perfect conditions. We never change. We never progress. We never become anything other than what we already are. We procastinate, and attempt to content ourselves with a "someday I will" philosophy of living.

Do you fear the risk of success?

Now modern psychology, for all its inherent flaws, tells us that most humans suffer to some degree from low self-esteem. Perhaps we're not sure of ourselves, or however subconsciously, do not believe we are worthy of success. We seem to regard other people as better, more deserving, or as having a magical key to a successful life neatly tucked into a secret pocket.

Perhaps we fear to associate in those circles of seemingly successful people - to be seen in the unworthy light that we have falsely cast upon ourselves - a light that no one but us can see.

Do you fear the circles of success?

Success can be measured in a multitude of ways - a successful marriage, a successful career, a successful social life, a successful vegetable garden. Success does not always relate to riches and fame, or the accumulation of material wealth. But you will find that any brand of success you seek will develop only from an attitude of personal courage.

And it has been said that courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the ability to take action in spite of fear. Nothing, absolutely nothing in life is a sure bet, except that a mushroom will always remain a mushroom.

1. Value each child as an individual with unique strengths, needs, interests, and skills.

2. Focus on the child’s strengths. Emphasize and celebrate his “islands of competence.”

3. Reject the child’s behavior, but never reject the child. Use affectionate terms and nicknames when scolding (“Your  room is a mess, honey. Now turn off the TV and make your bed.”).

4. Remember that sincere interest can be more effective and meaningful than praise. Demonstrate a genuine interest in  her activities, hobbies, etc.

5. Establish realistic, achievable goals for your child. Anticipate success.

6. Avoid using sarcasm with kids; children with language problems often misinterpret it.

7. When discussing an issue or a problem, avoid bringing up past difficulties.

8. Never compare one child to another.

9. Help the child develop decision-making and problem-solving skills.

10. Understand that mistakes are an inevitable (and valuable) part of any learning experience. Use mistakes as an  opportunity to teach and assist.

11. Divide large tasks into smaller, manageable ones. This will ensure success, mastery, and retention.

12. Maintain a file of his academic work. Use this to demonstrate his progress and development when he is feeling down.

13. Encourage him to maintain “collections” (e.g., baseball cards, stamps, rocks, etc.). This allows him to be the  resident expert on a topic.

14. If she does not participate in team sports, promote individual sports (e.g., skiing, golf, swimming). This will  provide opportunities for success, exercise, and peer interaction.

15. Communicate your confidence in the child and in her future.

16. Permit and encourage the child to follow the normal fads of his peer group (e.g., clothing, music). This will enhance  his acceptance at school and in the community.

17. Emphasize the positive aspects of her behavior or performance, even if the task was not completely successful. Reward  direction, not perfection.

18. Anticipate that the child will have plateaus, failures, backslides, setbacks, and regressions. Support and encourage  him at these times. Kids need love most when they deserve it least!

19. Look for opportunities to offer him choices to allow him to practice decision-making skills.

20. Never communicate disappointment to your child. The disappointment of an adult may be too great a burden for a child  to carry.

Remember:
· Your child’s self-esteem will be determined by the conditional acceptance that he receives from others — and the  unconditional acceptance that he receives from you.

· Your child’s self-esteem will be determined by success and progress in four areas:

o Social (acceptance, friendships)
o Competence (in a skill area)
o Physical (clothing, attractiveness)
o Character (effort, generosity, etc.)

The most important quality you can ever develop is having belief in yourself. The belief that you can, without a shadow of a doubt achieve success in every area of your life. Virtually every person has the capacity to do wonderful things with his or her life. But the greatest single obstacle for most people is self-doubt. Many people wish they could accomplish certain things but lack the belief that they can actually do it.

When people under achieve in any part of their life, it is their beliefs more than anything else that hold them back. Self-limiting beleifs act as breaks on our ability to achieve our goals. Many of us have high hopes, dreams, and aspirations, but we let doubts creep in and undermine our talents, abilities, and effectiveness.

Each one of us has feelings of inferiority because we feel that we are not good enough. We think that we are not as good as other people, and we feel that we are not good enough to acquire and enjoy the things we want in life. Often we feel that we don't deserve good things. Even if we work hard and have some achievements in our life, we often feel that we are not really entitled to our successes.

The Universal Law of Belief says that whatever we believe, with feeling becomes our reality. We don't beleive what we see; instead, we see what we believe. Our beliefs form a screen as to how we see the world, and we never allow any information that is not consistent with our beliefs to pass through it. Even if we have beliefs that are totally inconsistent with reality, we won't let them through because our beliefs have become true for us.

The most common and also the most harmful beliefs are the ones that are self-limiting. These are beliefs about yourself. For example, believing that you can't acheive something because you don't have enough money or education. You might believe you can't acheive something because you are the wrong sex, race, age, or it is because of the economy. Most of these beliefs are not true, but they will hold you back nonetheless.

The fact is, you deserve every good thing that you are capable of acquiring through the use of your talents. The only real limitation on what you can be and have, is if you lack the desire. If you you set a goal and want to achieve it badly enough, nothing in the world can stop you from achieving it, as long as you're willing to persist long and hard enough.

To develop positive beliefs, you have to decide exactly where you want to end up in the future. The clearer you are about the result you want in your future, the easier it will be for you to change your actions and behaviors in the short term. This in turn,will assure that you achieve what you want in the long term.

Once you've clearly decided on the type of person you want to be, you will have already taken a major first step in developing new beliefs. In order to incorporate your new beliefs into your every day life, you have to discipline yourself to act exactly in every situation as if you already were that person. When you begin to act like the successful person you want to become, you will actually adopt their values, qualities, and characteristics. And they will then become a permanent part of your personality.

If you consistently act like the person you want to become every day and in every situation it will begin a chain reaction. Your attitude will change and become more postive. This will then build stronger and more postive beliefs. And your beliefs will then, exert a positive influence on your values.

You have no limitations on your potential except for those that you believe you have. Successful people are not extraordinary or special in any way. They are not different from you or I. But, all successful people do have the unwavering belief that they can accomplish anything that they really want in life. You are a good person. From this day forward, see yourself as the very best you can be, and refuse to accept any limitations on your possibilities. Once you develop that belief in yourself, and you act in accordance with your beliefs, your future will be unlimited.

Fear of failure is one of the greatest fears people have. Fear of failure is closely related to fear of criticism and fear of rejection. Successful people overcome their fear of failure. Fear incapacitates unsuccessful people.

     The Law of Feedback states: there is no failure; there is only feedback. Successful people look at mistakes as outcomes or results, not as failure. Unsuccessful people look at mistakes as permanent and personal.

     Buckminster Fuller wrote, "Whatever humans have learned had to be learned as a consequence only of trial and error experience. Humans have learned only through mistakes."

     Most people self-limit themselves. Most people do not achieve a fraction of what they are capable of achieving because they are afraid to try—because they are afraid they will fail.

     Take these steps to overcome your fear of failure and move yourself forward to getting the result you desire:

     Step One: Take action. Bold, decisive action. Do something scary. Fear of failure immobilizes you. To overcome this fear, you must act. When you act, act boldly.

     Action gives you the power to change the circumstances or the situation. You must overcome the inertia by doing something. Dr. Robert Schuller asks, "What would you do if you knew you could not fail?" What could you achieve? Be brave and just do it. If it doesn’t work out the way you want, then do something else. But DO SOMETHING NOW.

     Step Two: Persist. Successful people just don’t give up. They keep trying different approaches to achieving their outcomes until they finally get the results they want. Unsuccessful people try one thing that doesn’t work and then give up. Often people give up when they are on the threshold of succeeding.

     Step Three: Don’t take failure personally. Failure is about behavior, outcomes, and results. Failure is not a personality characteristic. Although what you do may not give you the result you wanted, it doesn’t mean you are a failure. Because you made a mistake, doesn’t mean that you are a failure.

     Step Four: Do things differently. If what you are doing isn’t working, do something else. There is an old saying, "if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you always got." If you’re not getting the results you want, then you must do something different. Most people stop doing anything at all, and this guarantees they won’t be successful.

     Step Five: Don’t be so hard on yourself. Hey, if nothing else, you know what doesn’t work. Failure is a judgement or evaluation of behavior. Look at failure as an event or a happening, not as a person.

     Step Six: Treat the experience as an opportunity to learn. Think of failure as a learning experience. What did you learn from the experience that will help you in the future? How can you use the experience to improve yourself or your situation? Ask yourself these questions:

(1) What was the mistake?

(2) Why did it happen?

(3) How could it have been prevented?

(4) How can I do better next time?

     Then use what you learned from the experience to do things differently so you get different results next time. Learn from the experience or ignore it.

     Step Seven: Look for possible opportunities that result from the experience. Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich, says "every adversity, every failure and every heartache carries with it the seed of an equivalent or a greater benefit." Look for the opportunity and the benefit.

     Step Eight: Fail forward fast. Tom Peters, the management guru, says that in today's business world, companies must fail forward fast. What he means is that the way we learn is by making mistakes. So if we want to learn at a faster pace, we must make mistakes at a faster pace. The key is that you must learn from the mistakes you make so you don't repeat them.

     Although we all make mistakes, fear of failure doesn't have to cripple you. As self-help author Susan Jeffers says, "feel the fear and do it anyway."

Everyone wants success.

Some people spend their every waking moment pursuing it, to the detriment of all else.

For others, attaining success seems impossible. They conclude that it is destined for a select few. The rest of us are to remain “content with such things as we have”. Having it all is not “in our stars”.

However, the above assumptions couldn’t be further from the truth. When you strive for success with the wrong assumptions, you will never reach it.

It’s like travelling somewhere with the wrong map.

Zig Ziglar says that, “Success is a process, not an event,” “a journey, not a destination.”

Jim Rohn describes it as “…a condition that must be attracted not pursued.”

Do you see the pattern?

“…a process, not an event.”
“…a journey, not a destination.”
“…a condition that must be attracted not pursued.”

You can’t hurry success, catch it, or find it by chance. You can’t inherit it, gate-crash on it, or take it from some one else.

Success is something you must work hard and long to earn, for yourself. It has a price, sometimes a very high one. And most people aren’t really and truly ready to pay that price, to do what success demands.

If success has eluded you so far, perhaps you should try changing your assumptions.

You need to accept that:

(1) You must go through a growing process, which will require time and patience, in order to achieve success. There are no short cuts. Anything else is a temporary illusion.

Success that will remain with you, and bring you joy rather than sorrow, requires a learning process, a time to grow out of old habits and into new ones, a time to learn what works and what doesn’t.

And you must pay your dues, in full, in advance!

So don’t be in a hurry.

(2) You will need to acquire traits and skills that attract it.

What does success mean to you? Identify, in specific terms, what you regard as success. What traits or skills will you need to achieve this goal? Set clear, written goals.

Devise plans to acquire the needed traits and skills. Learn to do what you need to do, to get where you want to go.

What kinds of people have what you want? What do they do, or not do, that helps them get and keep it?

If you do what they do and avoid what they avoid, there’s a good chance that you will end up with what they have.

Find 2 or 3 people who have what you want. Write down the habits that have made them successful and resolve to copy them.

Starting now!

This is called mentoring, learning from others who have arrived where you want to go.

Mentoring can cut out the heart-aches of trial and error. A mentor can keep you focused and on track.

Once you learn to do what it takes, you qualify. And when you qualify, success comes looking for you. You just can’t be denied!

What a relief from the days when you ran after it! You fulfill the requirements and attract success to yourself. Opportunities open up to you, and when they do, they find you ready to grasp them.

(3) You must be ready to travel the road to success, oftentimes alone. It’s been said that, “At some point in time, the pursuit of your goals becomes secondary and what you have become in the process…..is what is most important. It’s not the distance you go…so much as the going itself” (Les Brown).

Parents, remember when you tried to teach your children to crawl? You put their favourite toy in front of them and teased them forward, inch by inch. They were after the toy, which kept them motivated.

But you wanted to strengthen their muscles and teach them a new skill. When they became good at reaching the toy, they had learned to crawl. After that, they could reach any destination they wanted, without you and the toy!

The DESTINATION was less important. They became champion crawlers in the PROCESS!

That’s what the journey to success does to you. It causes you to learn habits and skills that make you “full of success”, or “successful”.

Because you have now mastered the skills and the process, you can keep on reproducing success. You now have what it takes. But if you try to “gate-crash”, you don’t get to learn the process and the skills.

You cannot reproduce success, in the same or different scenarios. You do not have the tools for acquiring it; you only have a mirage. In other words, you have not become successful.

Should calamity strike, you are back to square one, and you’ll quite likely be there a long time.

Anyone can identify what success means to them and go after it. If you don’t mind the hard work and waiting, success can be yours. You can become the kind of person who attracts what he or she wants rather than running after it.

Funny enough, when you are ready for success you attract it, with little effort.

When you are not, it runs from you, no matter how hard you chase. In other words, you repel it!

Most likely, this is the reason that success eludes people.

Now that you know how to attract success, why not get started on the journey or process that will take you where you want to go? Any one can succeed, but unfortunately not every one will. It’s your decision to choose. Fate does not foist it upon you. You can have anything you want in life, if you’re ready to pay the price. But if you consider the process too hard, too slow, or the distance too long and lonely, you have qualified your self as a looser; painful but true.

So don’t short-change yourself with short-cuts and counterfeits. You can have the real thing.

Go out there today and start attracting success.

It’s literally yours for the taking!