How do I learn faster and get to be intellectually better? I can memorize facts, concepts, etc. I can't apply them though. I've sucked at doing anything that requires outside the box thinking. When I play video games, I keep improving until I have the basics down, then I never improve and always have a negative KD or whatever it's called in the game. When learning photoshop, it took me multiple attempts to finally get something tangible, but I still repeat mistakes. I've learned touch typing, but I keep repeating very basic mistakes and don't really improve.

My main concern is that I might be somewhat dumb, and I am wondering if I could perhaps improve how I do anything in my life.