How I Used My Book and Street Smarts to Overcome Adversity and Achieve My Goals

There are two aspects when it comes to achieving anything in life, it's either in the practical or theoretical aspects, while there are those who are involved in both aspects to succeed and achieve their goals.

Book Smart or Street Smart?

Who is a Book Smart? This is a person who learns from books, one who is academically intelligent and well-educated. There is the idea that those who are book smarts deal with any situation in an intellectual way, using and basing decisions on facts, knowledge, or insights that are acquired and gained from books or structured experiences (e.g studying).

Who is a Street Smart? This is a person who learns from the outside and his or her environment. This kind of person is described as having common sense, knowing the ways of the world, how to deal with different kinds of people, solving problems through experiences, and how things are done, or how they should be in real life. Unlike the book smart which deals with situations from books, street smart deals with matters and situations from a more practical direction with more realistic considerations.

Life on the street may be different from life in the school system. While there are people who have excelled in formal education and have achieved a lot of knowledge through books, and textbooks, the street smart may not excel academically, but may have a strong view of practical intelligence and will be able to find a way through social situations effectively.

I prefer both because they are channels for leading a successful life. What I just see there is that those who are street smart may not have the opportunity to go to school and be educated but they are also knowledgeable in other aspects other than learning from books. Some also would prefer not to go to school even when they have the help they need to go for education but just prefer a life that deals more with practicals. Then, we have others who went to school and still are both book and street smarts.

I have seen someone who can tackle a situation based on facts and theories he has acquired from books and also seen another who has a strong sense of communication and social skills in handling situations in a more realistic way. The latter prefers to deal with life's situation based on physical experiences than depending on facts from books.

I have shown my smartness in both aspects and will be sharing them with you.

My book smartness:

I love studying textbooks and what my lecturers taught me and I was always eager to wait to apply what I have learned. When I went for my teaching practicum in a secondary school, I read a lot of theories in counselling which helped me to counsel a student who came to my office one day on a problem that he was finding it difficult to study at home because his parents were always sending him on errands and when it's night, he would be tired to do anything. Since I have gone through how to deal with such problems through my book, it was easier to guide him on what to do following the step-by-step process of the counselling techniques.

After a few days, the student came smiling into my office, thanking me for helping and he confirmed that those steps worked. He said he wouldn't be stopping from applying all I explained to him. I felt happy too.

My being street smart:

One of the reasons I started saving and budgeting was learning from experience from people close to me. I learned how a lack of financial knowledge could make one go into debt and struggle hard to get help. I have once narrated how I helped my aunt complete her house rent she just moved into last year because she didn't learn to save. When my brother was going to school on his first day, I called and shared the experience with him which I advised him to always save so he wouldn't be like my aunt. Today, he is always happy he started the journey to saving because my brother wasn't someone who knew what savings could do before. Now, I am glad I learned that through experience in my family and to avoid being in challenges of money, I began to save and it has always saved me up to this day.

In a nutshell, learning through practical or real-life events and theory can be a way to achieve anything in life. Depending on just facts from books might not give you the needed help to achieve success, but applying real-life experiences to situations will do.

Thanks for your time on my blog.