How to Increase Your Intelligence: 5 Proven Strategies for Cognitive Growth

“One should not pursue goals that are easily achieved. One must develop an instinct for what one can just barely achieve through one’s greatest efforts.”
— Albert Einstein

Intelligence isn’t fixed—it’s a skill that can be developed. Your brain, like any muscle, grows and improves when it’s stimulated. By adopting intentional habits and challenging yourself regularly, you can strengthen your mental abilities, expand your creative thinking, and improve your problem-solving capacity. Below are five pillars, each based on neuroscience and cognitive psychology, to help you increase your intelligence.

1. Seek Novelty: Embrace New Learning Experiences

Engaging with new and unfamiliar activities is one of the most effective ways to stimulate brain growth. When you expose yourself to novelty, your brain releases dopamine—a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure, learning, and motivation. This release creates an enhanced state of attention and focus, which primes neurons for learning.

Dopamine-rich states increase what neuroscientists call synaptic plasticity—the brain’s ability to form new neural pathways. This is key for memory retention and cognitive flexibility. For example, learning a new language or playing a new musical instrument introduces complex stimuli that your brain has to decode and adapt to. Over time, this leads to neurogenesis, the creation of new brain cells, which directly contributes to increased intelligence.

The takeaway: try new things often. Travel, read books from unfamiliar genres, learn new skills, or take up unfamiliar hobbies. Novelty forces your brain to adapt and grow.

2. Challenge Yourself: Stay in a State of Productive Discomfort

It’s easy to mistake proficiency for progress. Many brain-training apps can make you better at their specific games, but not necessarily smarter. Why? Because once your brain has mastered a particular task, it no longer grows from repeating it.

Real cognitive growth comes from staying just outside your comfort zone—a state psychologists call “productive discomfort.” When you stretch yourself just beyond your current capabilities, your brain adapts to meet the demand. This process strengthens cortical thickness, particularly in the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for higher-order thinking skills like planning, decision-making, and goal setting.

Don’t aim to be perfect—aim to be challenged. Learn subjects that intimidate you. Try solving complex math problems, engage in debates, or study philosophy. Seek the kind of difficulty that keeps your brain on its toes.

3. Think Creatively: Master Divergent and Flexible Thinking

Creativity isn’t just for artists—it’s a sign of a highly flexible brain. One of the key markers of intelligence is the ability to connect seemingly unrelated ideas to generate innovative solutions. This is called divergent thinking.

Divergent thinking means using both hemispheres of the brain to explore various directions. It involves making remote associations, bouncing between logical and abstract ideas, and combining concepts in novel ways. This isn’t daydreaming—this is structured creativity that fuels cognitive flexibility.

For example, take a random cartoon image and try to caption it with ten different interpretations. Or brainstorm as many uses for a paperclip as possible. These exercises stimulate the prefrontal cortex, enhancing your brain’s adaptability.

The more you practice creative problem-solving, the better your brain becomes at switching between conventional and unconventional approaches—an essential skill in a world that constantly demands innovation.

4. Do Things the Hard Way: Strengthen Core Cognitive Skills

We live in an age of shortcuts—autocorrect fixes our typos, GPS navigates our routes, and calculators do our math. But the brain, like any tool, weakens when it’s underused.

Deliberately doing things the hard way keeps your brain sharp. Solve math problems by hand. Memorize phone numbers. Learn how to code. These tasks force your brain to engage logic, spatial reasoning, memory, and language skills—vital components of intelligence.

By consistently challenging your core faculties, you maintain neuroplasticity and cognitive stamina. Just as weightlifting strengthens muscles through resistance, doing mentally demanding tasks builds stronger, more resilient brain networks.

Choose the more difficult route often. Struggle is a signal that growth is happening.

5. Network: Expand Through Diverse Interactions

Human intelligence doesn’t grow in isolation. Social interaction plays a huge role in developing and refining our cognitive abilities. By networking—engaging with people from different backgrounds, perspectives, and expertise—you’re exposed to novel ideas that challenge your assumptions.

These diverse interactions stimulate parts of the brain associated with empathy, perspective-taking, and social reasoning. You not only expand your emotional intelligence but also train your brain to consider multiple viewpoints simultaneously—a core component of critical thinking.

Group discussions, mentorships, debates, or simply having deep conversations with curious individuals can lead to new insights and creative breakthroughs. It’s in these moments of exchange that fresh neural pathways are formed.

Remember: intelligence is not just what you know, but how you connect and apply what you know through interaction.

Statistics on Intelligence Development

• Neurogenesis: Studies show that engaging in novelty and learning new skills increases neurogenesis in the hippocampus, which is responsible for memory and learning.

• Cognitive Load Theory: Tasks that challenge your brain improve long-term working memory and executive functioning.

• Creative Thinking: Creative individuals tend to show greater activation in the default mode network, responsible for idea generation and mental simulation.

• Brain Plasticity: Practicing difficult tasks increases the density of gray matter, which correlates with higher intelligence scores.

• Social Learning: A 2021 study found that people who frequently engage in complex social interactions perform better on fluid intelligence tests.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q1: Is intelligence fixed or can it be improved?
Intelligence is not fixed. Modern neuroscience has proven that the brain remains plastic—able to grow and rewire itself—well into adulthood.

Q2: How often should I challenge myself to see improvement?
Consistent engagement is key. Aim to stretch your mental abilities daily, even in small ways, such as reading a difficult article or solving a new type of puzzle.

Q3: What’s the best way to apply creative thinking?
Use brainstorming techniques, switch between different types of problems, and engage in interdisciplinary learning. The goal is to make unusual connections between ideas.

Q4: Can socializing really make me smarter?
Yes. Social interaction activates brain regions involved in higher-level thinking and helps you consider multiple perspectives, improving decision-making and empathy.

Q5: Do brain training apps help?
They improve specific skills, but gains are often limited to the task at hand. For broader cognitive improvement, pursue diverse and meaningful challenges.

Final Thoughts

Increasing your intelligence is less about genetics and more about mindset and behavior. By embracing novelty, challenging yourself, thinking creatively, resisting shortcuts, and building diverse relationships, you’re creating the ideal environment for cognitive growth.

Your brain is designed to grow—so give it reasons to.