Following are ten SmartStrategies™ from my Multiple Intelligence Toolbox. I've included these to give you some instant ways to incorporate SelfSmart into the mentoring, coaching, and training you provide.

The basic process for doing this is . . .

1. Name the content or information you want to teach. Get very clear on the specific concepts, ideas, processes, skills, etc. that you want to get across in your mentoring, coaching, or training session.

2. Write down the learning objective(s) you have for the mentoring, coaching, or training session. What do you want your participants to be crystal clear on at the end of the mentoring, coaching, or training session?

3. Look over the SmartStrategies™ below and select a couple of strategies you believe can help participants understand what you're teaching more fully in an SelfSmart way. Basically you'll be asking them to in some way create "visual representations" of the content you're teaching.

4. Outline your teaching plan, incorporating the SmartStrategies™ you've chosen into your mentoring, coaching, or training. You'll likely be teaching something you've taught before, but this time in a new way – accessing your and your participants SelfSmart.

[NOTE: The descriptions I've provided of the various tools are merely to help you get started working with this intelligence in your mentoring, coaching, or training. Feel free to redefine any of the tools I've provided and to add additional strategies to the toolbox!]

• Silent reflection methods—work with reflective journals, thinking logs, or learning diaries

• Metacognitive techniques—use strategies which promote “thinking about one’s thinking”

• Thinking strategies planning—develop knowledge of which thinking patterns to use in what situations

• Emotional processing—become aware of affective dimensions of something one is studying or learning

• “Know thyself” procedures—state personal values, beliefs, motivations, and intentions

• Mindfulness practices—employ methods for “paying attention” to one’s life experience

• Focusing/concentration skills—develop the ability to bring one’s mind to a single point of focus

• Higher-order reasoning–use strategies to move learning from memorization of facts to synthesis, integration, and application

• “Altered states of consciousness” practices—practice shifting moods/ awareness to optimal states

• Independent studies/projects—use “work alone” assignments where one expresses feelings and thoughts on a topic

• Autobiographies–tell one’s own life story and experience for another

• Goal-setting–articulate personal and professional future intentions and desires

• Hero/heroine identifications–study figures who embody qualities or skills one wants to develop

• Creativity triggers–use strategies to stimulate creative thinking in oneself

• Personal application scenarios–articulate how to implement something learned in one’s personal life

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