This is the part of us that thinks, learns, plans, reasons, builds pictures and maps of reality, and tells us what is real and what is not. It is the part of us that explores, experiments, learns, questions, challenges, sees patterns in things, identifies problems, analyses, diagnoses, designs things, and solves problems. The intellectual self can use concrete data or information from the real world or it can use abstract or representational data or symbols that stand for real things. It can also use imaginary or contrived data to make pictures of things or imaginary scenarios. Well functioning intellects can also clearly distinguish between things in the real world and things that exist only in imagination or fiction. It is our intellect that knows, thinks, reasons, and makes meanings of things in the real world. What we know, what we understand, and what we think things mean, what we believe, what we value, and what we prioritize, are all products of our intellectual selves.
Though our genetic inheritance does affect our basic intellectual capacities and learning styles, almost everything in our intellect was developed after we were born. Our intellect is therefore the most adjustable, programmable, and changeable aspect of our selves. This is the part of us that drives growth and development beyond our primitive biological inheritance. This is the part can empower us to better understand and manage the other more fixed aspects of ourselves.
~What kind of intellectual profile did you inherit or develop?
~How do you build your mental pictures of reality?
~How do you learn new things?
~How much information have you learned about things that are important in your life?
~Do you like to spend time thinking about things and figuring them out, or do you prefer someone else figure things out and tell you the answer?
~Do you feel the need to understand things before you have to work with them, or do you prefer to act and then deal with problems if they come up?
~Do you need to prove things for yourself before you accept or believe them, or do you accept things mainly on faith in the people who told you?
~Do you have confidence in your own ability to figure out life and create your own meaning and values, or do you think you need help from someone bigger or smarter than you?
~What are your most important beliefs, values, and priorities?
~How did you come to believe or accept your most important beliefs?
~How do you know that the things you believe are true or valid?
~Can you distinguish between facts, reality, fiction, fantasy, legends, and mythology.
~Did you ever have to discard or change an important belief? If so, how did you change it?
~What do you value most in life?
~What do you believe about those things that make them so valuable to you?
