The Batman IQ is known to be an impressive 192. Compare that to Einstein, who had an IQ in the 160s, and you immediately recognize how smart Bruce Wayne is. But he needs every last IQ point because the Joker, Bane, and Scarecrow are all known for having high IQs. If he is going to be better than them, it’s vital that he can out-think them.
There are not enough people who spend time working on improving their thinking. The more clarity you have in your thinking, the better you will make decisions that help your life in the long run. Here are some things you can do to get smarter and improve your level of thinking.
It would help if you remembered that our brains want us to think less because the brain consumes so much energy. Thinking is not easy, and that’s why you will see chess masters sweating during games. They are thinking so hard and consuming so much of their body’s energy that it produces sweat. It’s not easy to think!
1. Have a Growth Mindset
A fixed mindset believes that you are born at certain skill levels, and there is nothing you can do to improve that. People with a fixed mindset believe that Bruce Wayne is just smarter, richer, and better able to fight because he was born that way. While that is true of his wealth, it’s not for intelligence and physical gifts.
Your height is fixed but what you do with your height is not. You always have to believe that you can grow, improve and get better. Its been proven that kids with a fixed won’t try as hard at anything because they believe the outcome has been decided. Kids with a growth mindset will give more effort and keep trying.
2. Go a Mile Deep Instead of a Mile Wide
You can study a topic and go in-depth on that topic to make sure you know everything about it. The benefit is that you become an expert; the downside is that you give up many other things you can learn about. That is going a mile deep and an inch wide.
Most people go a mile wide and an inch deep, meaning they learn a little bit about many things, but they never become an expert on anything.
Bruce Wayne understands how to be a detective; he knows forensics, psychology and has mastered martial arts. He goes topic by topic and goes a mile deep on each one. He makes sure to learn everything he can about things.
3. Read Like Crazy
“The more you learn, the more you earn”
Warren Buffet
You have to be willing to keep reading and expanding your mind. One thing you don’t see a lot of in Wayne Manor is a bunch of TVs. He could afford to have TVs everywhere. Instead, he focused on getting books and reading as much as he can.
His learning is not for his pockets’ wealth, but it’s for helping him think and learn and understand more. In the 1989 Batman, Bruce Wayne cracked the Joker’s code because he read and studied chemistry. As a good detective, he realized that the Joker had an aptitude for Chemistry, and he figured out how he was killing people.
You have to be willing to read as many books as you can. Don’t just read one category. Self-help is great, but study history, economics, psychology, and many other categories that people tend to avoid.
4. Listen to Podcasts
Some people make excuses that they can’t read or learn because they are busy, but in today’s world, this is total nonsense. Podcasts and videos have made it easy for people to learn while they do other things.
Have a long drive, or you’re doing a workout? Kill two birds with one stone and learn while you get other things done. There are no excuses not to do this other than an unwillingness to get better.
Bruce Wayne is listening to podcasts all day that can help him to succeed in his next mission. If he has a spare moment sitting on top of a building, he is getting better. What are you doing?
5. Know What Your Job Requires
Bruce Wayne went into his role as Batman understanding what success would look like. The key lesson here is that you have to know where you’re going to head in the right direction.
You may not want to be Batman, but if you want to increase your Batman Factor, you need to know what skills you need to master. Your job requirements will dictate where you spend your time.
Some too many people spend their days without know idea of where they are going. They want more money but have no plan to acquire it. You have to know exactly what you want from life and then do everything in your power to make it happen.
6. Keep Practicing
Everyone wants to be great, but no one wants to do the work required to be great. Practice with immediate feedback is what makes perfect over time. Batman Begins shows Bruce Wayne training with people around him. He had peers, he had a coach, and they were there to push him to be his best.
Deliberate practice is NOT easy. You have to have thick skin and be willing to be torn down to be built back up for the better. You have to build great habits and show up for your craft every day.
Bruce Wayne became Batman because of practice. You don’t master material arts by working on it for a few weeks. It takes years of your life to be great at anything.
7. Build Your Support Team
Batman tells people that he works alone, but it’s just not true. He relies on a strong network of allies, including the Batfamily. His main ally is Alfred Pennyworth, his loyal butler. He is the one who helps guide him and is willing to tell him hard things. He does not just tell him what he wants to hear.
To have a great support team, you need people in your life who will stand up to you and tell you hard things right to your face. You take in what they say because you know that at the end of the day, they will always have your back.
8. Be Courageous
If you want a Batman IQ, you’re going to have to be courageous as well. You’re not going to win in life being sheepish. Suppose you want something. You have to have the guts to move forward and attack it. Too many people want change, they want things to be better, but they take minimal action to get there.
It takes courage to admit that you’re not doing as well as you would like. It takes even more courage to do something about it. Bruce Wayne faces this reality daily. When he had to face Superman, he realized he was too weak, which forced him to learn more about his weakness.
9. Spend Time in Solitude Thinking
You can’t have a Batman IQ without doing this. As a society, we have become horrible at spending time alone. People will do anything to avoid being alone, including getting on their phones to avoid being in their own heads.
If you want to improve your thinking, though, the best thing you can do is be quiet and alone. It forces you to process, reflect, and catch mistakes and allows you to process how to apply all of what you’re learning. Anyone can read a book, but few can take what they are learning and apply it to life.
Batman spends a lot of time in the Batcave on his own. Doing research learning, fixing his equipment, and making new gadgets. Even when he is out at night, he spends time sitting in the shadows alone, just thinking.
10. Focus On What Matters
Bruce Wayne does not spend much time focusing on Wayne Enterprises. He needs the business to his Batman life and to help Gotham city financially. But he also knows that he needs others to run the company. He can’t spend his time being the full-time CEO because it would take away from his life as Batman.
You need to know what to focus on. You may need a job to fund your life today, but your side hustle may be where your heart is. Don’t be scared to put your all into building it up. When you focus on the right things, you’re able to do more with fewer resources.
Go Get Your Batman IQ
There are no guarantees in life, but if you want to be smarter, you must first believe that it’s possible to be smarter. If you don’t start with that belief, you will get nowhere in life.
Once you believe, you have to work each day on many things on this list to improve. You have to think with a long-term mindset because nothing is built in a day. It would help if you had time and consistency to win.
