How to Become the Smartest Person in the World

“I know I’m not the smartest person in the world.”

I have heard people say this many times, and I take it they’re making a declaration, as if it’s a privilege or maybe even a badge of honour. But why? Maybe it is a harmless admission that nobody knows everything. Other times I fear people use it to step away from doing something they’ve never done without even trying. The problem is not that they have failed to call themselves a genius. It is that they may be treating a moment of uncertainty as a verdict on what they can learn.

If you repeatedly tell yourself that difficult things are beyond you, you may start to approach them differently. You hesitate to ask a question, put off applying for a role or abandon a book when the first chapter feels demanding. Each decision seems small, and some obstacles really do need time, resources or support. However, when the same belief keeps making the decision for you, it’ll close doors before you discover what was possible.

The hidden cost of talking yourself down

The way you speak to yourself can affect what you attempt and how long you stay with it. Calling yourself “not academic” may feel like a fair description of your school years, but it can become a reason not to learn now. Saying “I never finish anything” can turn one unfinished project into a lifelong identity. When those phrases return, ask whether they describe a fixed truth or a difficult pattern you might change with practice and help.

People often learn this language somewhere. Perhaps mistakes were mocked in a classroom, questions were treated as interruptions or confidence at home was mistaken for arrogance. Speaking yourself down may have helped you avoid embarrassment at the time. It deserves understanding rather than another round of self-criticism, but a habit that once protected you may now be limiting your choices.

What your inner voice can and cannot do

Words alone don't make someone more intelligent, and telling yourself you can learn will not remove every barrier. Skills develop through instruction, attention, feedback and repeated effort. The useful question is whether your inner voice helps you take part in that process. “I do not understand this yet, so I’ll ask someone to explain the first step” gives you somewhere to go. “I’m stupid” tells you nothing about what to do next.

Research provides some support, with important limits. Hatzigeorgiadis and colleagues (2011) reviewed self-talk interventions in sport and found a moderate positive effect on task performance, particularly for novel and precise tasks. This is evidence about performance in sport, not proof that positive phrases increase intelligence. It does suggest that the instructions people give themselves can matter when they practise a skill.

Jamieson, Mendes, Blackstock and Schmader (2010) found that teaching test takers to interpret their physical arousal as potentially helpful improved performance on a practice GRE compared with a control condition. A racing heart does not always mean you are incapable; sometimes it means the task matters to you. In an interview about his work on the inner voice, psychologist Ethan Kross also discusses ways to respond to repetitive, distressing thoughts (Leopold, 2022). That interview offers a researcher's perspective, not an intervention study.

Aim to become a better learner

The title of this story is deliberately ambitious, but nobody needs to become “the smartest person in the world” to build a more capable life. You can become better at listening, reading carefully, asking questions and returning to a problem after your first attempt fails. Some people may learn particular things faster than you; you will learn some things faster than others. Neither comparison tells you what your next month of practice might achieve.

Try replacing broad judgements with accurate descriptions. If you cannot follow an explanation, say, “I have not understood this part,” and name the part. If you forget what you studied, consider whether you need to revisit it, test your recall or change the way you take notes. If a task frightens you, recognise the fear without letting it decide your ability. This is a more demanding form of encouragement because it asks you to do something specific.

A practice you can begin today

Start by catching one sentence you use against yourself. Write it down exactly as it comes to you, then check its absolutes: “always,” “never,” “everyone” and “can’t.” Replace it with a statement you can believe and act on. “I never understand anything” might become, “I am struggling with this chapter, so I’ll read two pages, note what confuses me and ask one question.” You need not believe a grand declaration; you need a workable next step.

Then give yourself evidence through action. Spend fifteen minutes reading something challenging and write a summary in your own words. Return the next day and see what you can explain without looking. Ask for feedback when your understanding remains thin. Progress may be slow, uneven or interrupted by other demands, but those are reasons to adjust the practice, not proof that you were wrong to begin.

There’ll still be days when your old words come back. The turning point is not the day you never doubt yourself again; it is the day you notice the doubt and decide it does not have to write your next sentence or choose your next action. Speak to yourself with enough honesty to see the difficulty and enough respect to keep learning. Your future does not need a claim that you are the smartest. It needs your willingness to use the mind you have.

References

Hatzigeorgiadis, A., Zourbanos, N., Galanis, E. and Theodorakis, Y. (2011) “Self-talk and sports performance: A meta-analysis”, Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6(4), pp. 348–356. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691611413136

Jamieson, J. P., Mendes, W. B., Blackstock, E. and Schmader, T. (2010) “Turning the knots in your stomach into bows: Reappraising arousal improves performance on the GRE”, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46(1), pp. 208–212. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2009.08.015

Leopold, S. S. (2022) “A conversation with Ethan Kross PhD, the psychologist who knows what we should say when we talk to ourselves” [interview], Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, 480(11), pp. 2067–2070. https://doi.org/10.1097/CORR.0000000000002411

Recommended books

• Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It, Ethan Kross

• Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Carol S. Dweck

• The Confidence Gap, Russ Harris

• Feeling Good: The Mood Theraphy, David D Burns

• Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning, Peter C Brown, Henry L. Roediger 111 and Mark A. McDaniel

• Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise, Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool