Am I emotionally Intelligent?

Am I emotionally Intelligent? There are so many different definitions, descriptions and interpretations of what emotional intelligence is - it would be difficult for me to answer this question. Whose definition are we using? Is that a personal, or a corporate definition of EQ? Which school of ...Am I emotionally Intelligent? There are so many different definitions, descriptions and interpretations of what emotional intelligence is - it would be difficult for me to answer this question. Whose definition are we using? Is that a personal, or a corporate definition of EQ? Which school of thought are we talking about here? Whose book on the subject are we currently reading?

Do you see what I mean?

My own personal interpretation of emotional intelligence is quite simple. I view it as the ability to be aware of, and understand how my emotional state affects my thoughts and actions, and that of those around me.

This may appear too simplistic, but herein lies the problem I think. I feel emotional intelligence is an evolved natural process that we are beginning to understand and learn about - and the key here is awareness. I believe it is a natural progression for us – we can become aware of how our emotions affect our day to day cognitive abilities, and then use this new found skill to improve our experience of life. No other animal on the planet can come close to doing this.

I think IQ is pretty much a given – you either have it or you don’t. Knowledge and experience can be improved greatly, but your IQ cannot. EQ on the other hand, in my opinion, is an important life skill that can be learnt, implemented, improved and passed on to our families and the people around us.

Too many psychologists and so called experts seem so intent on proving their own high IQ that they forget we are dealing with EQ here. They make it seem so confusing and hard to grasp that only someone with a high IQ would be able understand it.

I don’t have a very high IQ myself, in part due to being dyslexic but from my own personal interpretation of EQ I think I do quite well. From theirs, I couldn’t begin to say.

I think there is a great deal of money to be made from this EQ revolution. The corporate world is always crying out for the next big thing that will improve their productivity and give them that ‘cutting edge’. I feel a lot of people are selling out here, focusing on making large amounts of money etc, rather than getting together and coming up with a working definition of what EQ is and teaching us how to implement it into our individual lives.

Too many people are missing the boat with EQ because the so-called creators and authorities are so busy IQ-ing it up and disagreeing that it goes way over the head of the average person and they totally miss out on a relatively simple idea that could have changed their world.

EQ is not about IQ – you shouldn’t need a high IQ to understand your EQ!