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Smart can mean so many different things to different people. To one person it may be IQ. To another it may be love. To another it may be an ability to be analytical. To another it may be an ability to be emotional. Still to another smart may be the ability to make money while to another it may be the ability not to make money. Smart can be used almost any way imaginable.
Whatever smart may be, when most people use the word they are using it as a good thing, they are using it as a compliment. People use the word smart as a label for somebody who is almost always doing the right thing. The more you think about the word and what principle smart is trying to exemplify it appears to become more clear. While typical definitions like alertness or resourcefulness may suffice for such a word I think a better definition would be along the lines of: alignment with nature.
What do I mean by this? Well first of all, nature is something almost everyone respects and holds in high esteem. When nature does something we almost never question it as being wrong and almost always support it as being just. We look at nature (or the universe) as being something that has got it right. If nature decides it's going to rain then we accept it and go along with it. If nature chooses for good we accept it. If nature chooses for bad we accept it. We are able to take the good and the bad with nature and still hold respect for all aspects of it.
In this sense nature is smart. It always knows the right thing to do. Nature exists in a state of balance between all types of different probabilities. But no matter what you throw at nature it will always return the appropriate response. If you hurt nature and pollute it nature will always find a way to cleanse itself. If you find yourself always glorifying nature and putting it on a pedestal it will find a way to show you a negative side. Nature is the ultimate example of give and take, and it does it to an exactitude that is unparalleled by anything we know of.
Because of such a pristine level of always doing the correct action, I find nature as something that any smart person should eventually become in line with. Face it, you're not going to outsmart or beat nature, so you may as well learn how to go along with it. And while you learn this it is important to understand that nature is one of the most fair and best teachers there is. Therefore, alignment with nature is something that is key to living a life of balance and growth. Nature is here to teach us, and we are here to be its students.
But it goes even further than this. It is also important to understand the principles nature works off and then apply these to your own life.