Back during the days, intelligence quotient (IQ) is the measurement of how far we’re going to go in life. If you’re smart or intelligent, you’re bound to go places.
When we see a kid who always has straight A’s on his report card, we would automatically think that the kid will be successful someday. We don’t make the same remark with a kid who only has average grades, no matter how diligent the kid may be.
Well, nobody can really blame people for thinking the way they do. I mean, in order for anyone to make it anywhere, one has to have wits.
It was only recently, that people have come to notice that there’s more to meeting success than just being smart. Intelligence doesn’t guarantee success anymore. So what if you were the smartest employee in the staff? If you don’t know how to handle your emotions, you’d mostly likely quit your job before the end of the year.
So, what if you graduated college with the highest honor? If you don’t know how to make your way socially then you’re going to have a hard time landing your first job.
More important than intelligence quotient is emotional intelligence. But what is emotional intelligence? It’s our ability to measure and perceives our emotions. It’s our capacity to control our emotions.
We all know how disruptive emotions can be. Without the capacity to handle them in a productive and healthy way, we’ll end up unsuccessful and lonely in life, no matter how intelligent we may be.
Developing your emotional intelligence can be as much as a rough road as improving your IQ. So, to help you on your journey, here are some tips for improving your emotional intelligence:
Embrace your emotions
It’s quite easy to accept positive emotions. When we experience good things in life, we tend to share it with other people. As soon as the day is over we sleep with a good feeling inside, but whenever we’re faced with a negative emotion, we tend to deny it.
We make up excuses for ourselves just so we can justify our actions because whether we admit it or not, 90% of the circumstances we’re in are only the result of our own decisions. We make ourselves believe that what we did was for the better. In other words, we betray ourselves. We fool ourselves. The more we get used to lying to ourselves, the more we become blind to our emotions.
There will come a time when we don’t know what we’re really feeling anymore. We’ll feel like nothing is right, but can’t see the reason why things are the way they are.
You have to stay true to yourself. Whatever you’re feeling right now whether it is positive or negative, you have to admit it. You have to embrace it. Tell someone about it. We believe what we want to believe. When we keep things to ourselves we can make it whatever we want, but if somebody else knows about it, it becomes as true as it can ever be.
Embracing one’s emotions is the only way for one to learn how to handle emotions. Staying in control with one’s emotions doesn’t mean you have to bear with the pain. Rather, it means you can be happy despite challenging times.
Think before you act
There are times when we think we know everything. When we say or do something we feel like it’s the right thing to do, but that’s nothing but a “feeling”.
When we listen to our impulses, then that means that we’re letting our emotions drive our lives. We may think what we’re doing is well thought off, but in reality, we were just really listening to our emotions.
You have to practice thinking before acting. The moment you do you’ll realize that a lot of conflicts could have been avoided if you’d refer to your logic first before your emotions.