Emotional Intelligence: What It Is and Why You Need to Learn It
In this day and age, it’s not enough simply to be able to recognize your own emotions. To succeed in life and work, you need to understand them well enough that they don’t get in your way or stand in the way of success. That is precisely where emotional intelligence comes in. Let’s take a closer look at this!
What Is Emotional Intelligence?
Emotional intelligence has been defined as “the ability to recognize your own emotions and those of others, and use this awareness to manage your behavior and relationships.” In other words, it’s the ability to understand your emotions, use them to your advantage, and relate to others in a way that creates healthy and meaningful connections. The concept of emotional intelligence wasn’t actually coined until the 1990s, but versions of the idea have been around since the beginning of time. In fact, the ancient Greeks first observed a correlation between a person’s way of thinking and his or her ability to navigate the social world. In the modern world, researchers have found that having high emotional intelligence is even more important than having a high IQ when it comes to achieving success.
Why Is Emotional Intelligence So Important?
As we mentioned above, emotional intelligence is even more important than having a high IQ when it comes to achieving success. That’s because, while IQ is a static number that doesn’t change much over time, emotional intelligence is a skill that can be developed over time. The ability to understand your emotions, manage them, and use them positively in your relationships with others is an essential skill that can open many doors for you in the workplace, and in life in general. Having high emotional intelligence can help you to:
- achieve success in life and at work
- better control your emotions
- better to build communication and interaction with others
- manage your intentions and motivation
How To Develop Your Emotional Intelligence
Given the many benefits of having high emotional intelligence, it’s obvious that you should work to develop this skill as much as you can. But how do you go about it? First, you need to become aware of your emotions. Most people don’t spend a lot of time thinking about their emotions, other than to identify how they’re feeling at a given moment. But being aware of your emotions isn’t enough; you also have to understand where they come from so that you can use the information to your advantage. What are the things that make you feel certain ways? What are your go-to emotions in different situations? What do they say about you as a person?
Emotional intelligence isn’t something you’re either born with or without; it’s a skill that can be developed over time, and one that is absolutely worth cultivating. Having high emotional intelligence can help you to build better relationships, find more success both at work and in your personal life, and just generally be happier and fulfilled. It doesn’t matter which category you fall into; in this day and age, it’s not enough simply to be able to recognize your own emotions. It is also important to be able to manage them.
The author of this article is a therapist from the Sensera app. Sensera is a daily 10-minute self-therapy app. It’ll help you to cope with various mental problems (anxiety, self-esteem, relationship issues). Feel better with CBT audio sessions and exercises. Download now to become happier!
