7 characteristics of a practical person

A practical person is one who focuses on taking actions concrete, aimed at achieving clearly useful objectives and with more or less immediate reinforcement. For those who think and act in this way, anything that does not provide an observable advantage with little risk is of no interest or value.

For a practical person, the process or the method does not matter so much. but the result. If there are benefits to that outcome, the means to achieve them are likely to be justified. In that order of ideas, the abstract world of ideas, emotions or values ​​does not make much sense to them. They just think: if it works, it’s fine. If not, you have to explore the process to see what happened.

At first it would seem that a practical person is someone without scruples, but this is not the case. Simply For them, what gives concrete results is more valid and not speculation or intentions. In some way they fear them because they know that many times they remain a discourse, without being translated into specific actions.

People with a practical inclination make very relevant contributions, especially in times of difficulty or crisis.. There are many situations in which what matters is acting, and not speculating or theorizing. If someone has a heart attack, or a company goes into a tailspin, the right thing to do is act. That’s when a practical person reveals the great potential in him. They also have other interesting features, such as the following.

1. A practical person is realistic

If there is one thing a practical person has, it is a sense of reality. very well founded. They easily grasp the essentials of a situation or a person. On that basis they define how it fits into their plans and act, they do not get lost in details.

Rather than looking at how things could be, they are concerned with seeing how they are. That becomes the substrate of their way of acting. They can be crude, or sometimes a bit sharp, but they definitely do. They have their feet firmly on the ground. Ideals and perfect worlds are not spaces through which they move.

2. They are determined

When a person is practical, he sets very clear goals and goes after them.. She is hardly seen doubting, speculating or hesitating. Of course they can also be reflective, but they easily decant ideas and translate them into actions. They are more to be tested in reality than done through mental games.

All this makes them very determined people. They don’t like detours or half measures. As we have said, they prefer to evaluate the validity of their goals and projects on the ground, not in thought.

They are capable of changing direction when concrete reality shows them that they are going down the wrong path. Well, they are more inclined to achieve the objective than to the way to achieve it.

3. They take risks

Visualizing risks, measuring them, testing them and considering them in too much detail is not something that seduces a practical person. They understand that any circumstance entails eventual ups and downs.. However, this does not stop them.

These types of people have their eyes on results. They know that to reach a certain point it is necessary to take risks and be willing to make mistakes.. That doesn’t keep them up late. They trust that there is always another way to get to the same point. That’s why they don’t back down when they face the possibility of failure.

4. They do not depend on praise or criticism

There is nothing more impractical than living based on the approval of others. To achieve a gesture of acceptance there are people who are willing to falsify themselves, divert their path or assume positions that even go against themselves. This does not happen to a practical person.

Quite the contrary, people with a practical perspective on life are aware that all actions are subject to criticism; However, to act they do not depend on others to prove or disapprove their idea. In this sense, They don’t spend too much energy trying to please others..

5. They know how to prioritize: they work with hierarchies and stick to them

Practical people are people of action. But for an action to be successful, it must respond to a minimum order and clear criteria. In particular, a chain of actions leads to the achievement of good results when we know how to distinguish what is important and what is accessory.

Knowing how to prioritize is precisely having good criteria to classify the actions that deserve more attention.. Also those that must be done first to make the others possible or easier. Those who have practical thinking are good at prioritizing and following that order.

6. They have self-confidence

For its part, Practical people usually have high self-esteem; which has allowed him to develop the self-confidence necessary to believe in his own ideas and opinions. Therefore, they are confident that their efforts will give the results they expect, which in turn helps them motivate themselves.

Besides, They are people who usually know their strengths and weaknesses very well.so they make the most of the former, while trying to improve the latter.

7. They prefer simplicity

Finally, practical people tend to prefer simplicity in all aspects of their life. For example, in your clothing, when communicating with others, in your tastes, etc. This is because The simple is closely related to the useful and the functional.Therefore, the less complexity or detours they have, the better.

However, This does not mean that they are unkempt, that they are quiet, or that their interests lack depth. On the contrary, they just don’t tend to get involved or spend a lot of time on things that they consider of little importance.

Could there be a Practical Intelligence?

Howard Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences does not record practical intelligence as such. But can we talk about another type of intelligence not collected by the author? It should be analyzed whether practical ability fits with Gardner’s eight criteria to classify it as intelligence:

Possibility of being isolated due to brain damage or injury. Presence of people with a dispersed profile with respect to the average. Presence of basic mechanisms involved in the type of specific intelligence. History of a specific evolutionary development in ontogenetic terms. History of specific evolutionary development in phylogenetic terms. Support from experimental psychology. Support from psychometry. Possibility of coding in a symbolic system.

And what do you think? Is this a type of intelligence?

To conclude, we want to highlight that You will hardly find a person who is totally practical or another who is totally speculative.. Almost all of us have traits of one or the other and we apply them differently on different occasions.

Each of these perspectives is very valuable and provides different benefits. They are complementary and not exclusive. Whatever it may be, the truth is that it is useful for all of us to cultivate a little that practical side, especially when it comes to facing difficulties that require an immediate solution.