I.The Power of Thought Change your thoughts, change your life -------------------------- Book#4: Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More than IQ “1995” Author: Daniel Goleman, ------------------------------------------ “Emotional life is a domain that, as surely as math or reading, can be handled with greater or lesser skill, and requires its unique set of competencies. And how adept a person is at those is crucial to understanding why one person thrives in life while another, of equal intellect, dead-ends: emotional aptitude is a meta-ability, determining how well we can use whatever other skills we have, including raw intellect.” ---------------------------- Emotional Intelligence can be summed up in three points: ************* ❖ Through the application of intelligence to emotion, we can improve our lives immeasurably. ❖ Emotions are habits, and like any habit can undermine our best intentions. ❖ By unlearning some emotions and developing others, we gain control of our lives. ************************** Following is a breakdown of the book and some of its key points. -- Civilizing the brain ---------- • The physiology of our brains is a hangover from ancient times when physical survival was everything. This brain structure was designed for “acting before thinking,” useful when in the path of a flying spear or in an encounter with an angry mammoth. • We are still walking around in the twenty-first century with the brains of cave dwellers, and Goleman tells us about “emotional hijackings” (floodings of the brain with intense, seemingly uncontrollable emotion) that can trigger spur-of-the-moment murder, even of a longstanding spouse. ------- Using emotional intelligence ----------------- • This book shows the elements of emotional intelligence and its application in real life. • The problem is not the emotions per-se, but their appropriate use in given situations. Aristotle Quote: ********** “Anyone can become angry—that is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way—this is not easy.” ******* Aristotle’s challenge becomes all the more important in a technologically advanced world, because the meaning of “civilization” ceases to be technological, defaulting to the nature of man and the quest for self-control. ------------------ Emotion and morality ----------- In making the link between emotional life and ethics: • If a person cannot control their impulsiveness, damage will be done to their deepest sense of self. The two elements that are fundamental to emotional intelligence, and therefore are basic attributes of the moral person, are: • Control of impulse: “is the base of will and character,” • Compassion: that other benchmark of character, is enabled by the ability to appreciate what others are feeling and thinking. --------------------------------------- Emotional intelligence makes a winner --------------------------- • Other major qualities of emotional intelligence are persistence and the ability to motivate oneself. • These are not emotions per-se but require self-control and the ability to put negative emotions and experiences into context. • Goleman validates the “power of positive thinking” as a scientifically proven approach to achieving success, and says that an optimistic outlook is a “key clinical predictor” of actual performance, borrowing from research done by Martin Seligman (see Learned Optimism). • The obsession with IQ was a product of the twentieth century’s model of mechanistic achievement. • EQ, with its focus on empathic people skills and relationships, is a basic success element in a more fluid and creative twenty-first-century economy. ------------------------- The world of work -------------------- • Emotional Intelligence has significant impact on the workplace and business world. • It is clear that the concept of emotional intelligence has struck a nerve with workers angry or hurt by the low emotional capacities of their bosses. • Similarly, it has shone a light for many bosses and team leaders who wonder what they can do to improve maddeningly poor performance. • As you suddenly see that half your organization is emotionally stupid, your standards will inevitably rise. • As anyone who has worked in an office environment will know, you may be producing the most exciting product around but it will still be a miserable place to work if it is also an arena for clashing egos. Business success is the result of passion for a vision or a product. • Though big egos are often associated with such success, better companies are notable for their ability to create harmony and excitement by focusing on the product or the vision, not the organization. ----------------------- Teaching EQ ---------------- • Emotional Intelligence has its roots in the concept of “emotional literacy” it expounds on the need for EQ skills to become part of the school curriculum. • With facts and figures there are truly high costs—monetary and societal wellbeing—of not teaching children how to deal with their emotions constructively and resolve conflict. ************************* Conclusion: The truly successful person will always have achieved emotional self-mastery. **************************** Reference:Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More than IQ “1995” Author: Daniel Goleman, *******************
Posted on: Wed, 17 Jul 2013 18:23:01 +0000
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