I've received many emails from people interested in improving their intelligence but unsure where to start. I understand. There's a lot of information out there and to tell you the truth I'm still overwhelmed myself.

Still I've put a lot of thought into this so I have a few ideas. The optimum strategy is nowhere near complete, but as each research paper provides more data, we get closer and closer to a good training guide.

There is also an individual element which comes into play when approaching intelligence training. We all start at different places -- with different brains. Our paths will, therefore, become wildely different.

But for now, don't worry about that. We will begin with step 1 which is something I believe everyone should be doing.

Step 1 - Health

Your health is, without doubt, THE most important part of intelligence.

You don't need to reach perfect health before you start doing the other steps, but you should do one thing.

Even if you are already healthy, there are more things you can do. Do a little bit of research and effect one change that will improve your overall health. Figure out some tasty nutritious recipes so that you actually WANT to eat healthily. Come up with one recipe today. Or pick a sport and book a court or a lesson. You don't need to stick to one thing, but go and try it out and get your body moving. Or work on your sleep patterns.

There are many things you can work on. Make something happen now. In fact, don't even bother reading the next step. Bookmark this article or print it out and come back to it later. It's easy to read too much; the important thing is to get going.

Research doesn't count. It's important to research, but it means nothing unless you put it into effect. I bet there is something you can put into effect right now if you think about it. SO MAKE IT HAPPEN!

I've written more on health elsewhere on this site, but I don't want you to read it yet. It all basically says: 'get healthy; it's good for your brain'! That's all you need for now. This step is something you should work on for the rest of your life, but after a while it isn't difficult. In fact it's more difficult NOT doing it, since unhealthy people have less energy and can't think so clearly.

When you've got the ball rolling with health, move onto step 2.

Step 2 - Get rid of stress

Step 1 will help alleviate stress in a major way, but there will still be underlying causes. Can you do anything about them?

Stress will not only change the physiological state of your brain it will also occupy your thoughts and hinder your concentration.

It's all very well being able to go into a Zen like state, but we're usually stressed for a reason. Try to get rid of it if you possibly can. I know sometime it's practically impossible, but be aware that this stress is not good for you and you will ultimately function better and make better decisions if you can let go of some of the causes.

Try to find a practical solution to get rid of it and make this a priority. The occasional bit of stress may help you to some degree, but we can only handle stress is short doses. Longer bouts of stress will slowly start to kill you, so take whatever measures you possibly can to get rid of the culprits.

Step 3 - Meditation

This is mainly for concentration.

Meditation is easier if you're not stressed, so it's best to work on cutting that out first. But if there is nothing you can do about it, meditation will provide a breather.

Meditation is a good thing to keep up in the long term, but I'm not asking you to make a long-term commitment. The aim here is not to become a zen master, but rather to learn to sit still and concentrate. Commit to doing this daily for 30 days without fail. If you want to, you can take a break from it after that time, but commit to doing that 30 days.

You can read more about meditation here.

Step 4 - Something specific

The proceeding steps are very general and may not seem directly related to intelligence. While the above are incredibly important, I think it is also important to put something more tangible into the mix so that you can start to see direct results.

A popular path is memory improvement and it will definitely be very useful to you. If you decide to take that on, sign up to my 'Intelligence Report' Ezine and download the free memory eBook.

Another good idea is to give yourself a specific challenge. I've written an article on setting challenges here.

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There's a lot more to intelligence improvement than this , but if you go through these steps and especially make health a solid habit, you will be well on your way. For now, don't worry what comes next. Now is the time to take action. You have enough information to get started, so go get started!