Have you ever been going through some major life drama and wondered how you could be expected to show up to work, a class, a family function or some other obligation? Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could push the pause button on life’s demands in order to deal with your issues, drama, health concerns, etc.?
There is certainly an amount of emotional management which needs to be mastered in order to effectively perform commitments we often find ourselves needing to meet in life. There are four components which make up the concept of Emotional Intelligence.
- Personal emotional awareness
- Personal emotional management
- Social emotional awareness
- Social emotional management
Being aware of your emotions and learning to manage them is a key to success in life. Intentionally give a name to current emotions: Are you frustrated? Confused? Upset? Once you have identified how you feel you can purposefully address this emotion. Why do you feel this way? Are you misunderstood, misguided, feeling deceived? What would need to happen in order for you to no longer feel this way? Focusing on solutions will help you manage your emotions and help you find peace surrounding the situations causing negative feelings.
Practically all of life’s most joyful and/or frustrated feelings are rooted in relationships. We were created to be in relationship with others. The last two components of Emotional Intelligence surround sensing how others feel and learning to build healthy relationships.
Being sensitive to how others are feeling is important. This requires empathy. Watch this great video to learn more about empathy.
Understanding other’s feelings and expressing our feelings to others in a healthy way gives us a solid foundation for healthy relationship building. Learning to work through difficulties with others is important to achieving contentment.
To learn more about Emotional Intelligence and how you can improve your Emotional Quotient (EQ) check out some of these resources:
Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves
Three Silver Bullets to Increase Your E.Q. by Travis Bradberry
An Explanation of Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman