The phrase always looks good in any circumstance.

 

We have to be smart.

We usually use this phrase when we don't know what to say and want to pass as reasonably gifted intellectually.

 

We have to be smart.

 

Then it has the advantage of being able to be said in different ways and with different cadences, giving a different meaning, depending on the context.

 

For example, it may sound like a threat: We have to be intelligent! It applies in response to another prior threat. We can use that tone if we are threatened by a more powerful and more arrogant entity. Suppose our reaction cannot be immediate in the face of the power of the threatening entity. In that case, the only solution is to act strong and threaten that, for the next, we will be intelligent, which is recognising the lack of the said whose, at the moment, gift.

 

The phrase can also be said in a sly tone. As if to say that we have a brilliant solution to the problem, but we are not going to tell anyone since we don't really know what to do.

 

We have to be smart.

 

And then there is the philosophical way. The idea is to repeat the sentence twice. The first gust time attracts attention and the second time more slowly to give airs of a certain depth.

 

We have to be smart. We have to be ...s-maaart.

 

But the most intelligent way is to use it as a personal mantra.

 

The gang of neuro-linguistic programming has already realised what armies and religion have known for many centuries. If you repeat nonsense, you risk believing what you say.

 

Saying "We have to be smart" is a good trick.

 

The self-help books that explain how to succeed in life remember that it is essential to have a personal mantra, that is, to have a phrase that can be repeated until exhaustion for ourselves and others to hear.

 

Now "We have to be smart" is the best mantra you can have. If you can't really get smart, at least there is hope that we will start to believe that, which can be very good for our mental health.

 

It is always better than having those mantras that we all repeat, like "It has to be ..." or "What has to be has much strength ..." or "What to do?" usually said in a lamentable tone. They are very dangerous mantras, as they lead us to a dead-end of enormous conformism. It is halfway to depression. In short, it is not being clever.

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“We have to be smart” is not for funerals. There is no point in being smart in the face of someone's death. Death is even the real democratising entity. Before her, poor and rich, intelligent and less gifted and hippies, left-wing guys and even millionaires succumb in the cold arms of the great reaper of life.

 

“We have to be smart” should be used beforehand when we are in the dark. And at this moment, not only will each of us be reasonably scared, but Humanity as a whole is scared. Not only do we have to say several times a day, “We have to be smart”, but in fact, we have to try to be really smart.

 

I would even say it would be smarter to be really smart instead of just trying to be smart. This thing of trying to smell like the Portuguese tricks. If not, at least I look good in photography. Now, it is worth following the example of the most intelligent man of this 21st century. I refer to Barack Obama, who, unfortunately for white racists, was a handsome, charming and above all intelligent black man. Obama did not try. He decided and went and said to everyone: We can do it. We would add in the times that run “at home”. In good Portuguese, it would be “The guys can do it but at home.”

 

And that's where the pig twists its tail because, after a week of quarantine in Portugal, we don't really know how to be smart.

 

Leadership learners like to stress that problems must be turned into challenges. I say the apprentices because the true leaders do not stress, act, and deceive us all.

 

It is said to “turn problems into opportunities” in the business world.

Excuse me, listeners, but I still couldn't see the challenge or even the opportunity after eight days closed at home. But neither should I have a thing for leaders or entrepreneurs.

 

Maybe that in a week, after overcoming the challenge and seeing the opportunity, I will finally be able to have an edge of intelligence.

 

However, I can only repeat the phrase I chose for my personal mantra, now in a philosophical tone, giving a note of hope.

 

Attention:

We have to be smart (quickly).

(Now, more slowly.)

We have ... ... to be s-maaart.

 

And I add "he will make it ... but at home".

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© Eduardo Rui Alves