Why is emotional intelligence "your next" big shift?

Sometimes the things we pay the less attention to, turn out to be the most relevant for us.

Imagine yourself trying to read a book written in many different and complex languages, while you only understand a very few of them. This is what exactly happens, when we interact with people. The human brain is just like a very complex program, with each of its brain cells, made up of strong algorithms able to analyse and compare, any received information with millions of past memories, in different ways, varying from a person to another one.

When it comes to juxtaposing this reality to our social interactions, the exercise gets harder because assuming that our interlocutor or the person we have at the other side may have many reasons for not understanding a point, in the same way we do, may sometimes be tough; and the good news is, no one says it should be easy! However, what experts call Emotional Intelligence, is a strong prerequisite to building connections and ties, since the beginning of times. Here is why!

Looking at yourself in a mirror, ask these few questions without any excuse to your ego. What are my reactions at others? What is my relationship with my co-workers? How could I rate my ability to handle stressful situations? Do I take responsibilities to my reactions or do I consistently blame others? Adding a “why” to the answer of each of these questions, is a good start to our personal emotional intelligence assessment and this is really needed if we do want to track our well-being on a daily basis. For sure, this is not another self-sabotage or negative self-criticism process. Instead, only ourselves have the ability to decide how to handle and react over other people’s, mistakes, remarks, bullying, or wrong assumptions and bad perceptions of who we truly are. A spark does not react the same way, when put in glass jars, respectively filled with fuel or water. Yes you just got it! It’s up to you to be the fuel or the water and whatever the choice, the first to be affected is you…

We do have many tiny and ready to explode sparks which appears at any time and any place of our daily lives. The way we handle them, determine who we become and even our success in life and relationships. This means, the best you could offer yourself is learning how to handle your personal emotions first. It may be very hard for you to change the way your relatives or even your friends and colleagues understand your path, your choices and your actions, because they are processing all these information according to their own perceptions, experiences and what they have considered as meaningful in their life path. Reacting according to them, may be very dangerous because every person has it owns set of standards, beliefs and goals.

The Best you owe yourself is to raise your standards, learn more about yourself and your emotions, in a way that helps you stay grounded in achieving your personal goals and objectives. This is why I say that Emotional intelligence in your next big shift. Good luck!