If you could increase your brain power, then theoretically you could accomplish almost anything. While having a healthy and strong body is highly important as well, most of us would probably agree that our activities are more reliant on our cognitive abilities rather than our physical ones.

Many people have computer-based jobs for instance, and this means that we need to use our brains to handle data, to manipulate software, or to come up with business strategies. Much of our success comes down to our ability to interact with others, which of course is very much dependent on our intelligence and our brain power. Whether you’re giving a presentation and choosing the best words to communicate your message, or whether you’re in an interview or date setting and trying to quickly find the wittiest or funniest response to a question.

Problems at home tend to involve finances, social situations or legal issues – there are very few problems we can solve with our fists. In our spare time, we tend to pursue more intellectual activities too. Perhaps we play video games (reacting to enemies and solving puzzles), or maybe we sit and read.

And even when an activity seems ‘physical’ on the surface, it is in fact very often just as much cognitive. Take sports for example, which require you to be aware of the positions of your team mates and opponents and to use your body efficiently and accurately through space. Or how about doing ‘physical labor’ such as making repairs – which almost always involves some measure of engineering.

So, if you were smarter then, or if you just had greater command over your mental faculties, you’d be able to: