Happy Valentines Day! Welcome to this month’s ANNabolic Times!
As Valentine’s Day approaches, you may be thinking about the state of relationships in your life. Relationships are the cornerstone of an extraordinary life. How are yours?
The most important relationship you have is the one that you have with—you guessed it—you. If you had to describe your treatment of yourself, how would you describe it? Often times, if we treated our friends the way we treat ourselves, we wouldn’t have any. Are you treating yourself like a best friend or something else?
Maya Angelou said: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” How are you making yourself feel?
One of the best things we can do to improve our lives is to improve our Emotional Intelligence skills. Emotional Intelligence, or EI, describes our ability or capacity to perceive, assess, and manage the emotions of one’s self, and of others. Because our emotional intelligence has such a large impact upon our success in life, it is important that we fully develop it. It has been said that your IQ can land you a job but your lack of EQ can get you fired. Your IQ only accounts for roughly 20% of your success in life. Your emotional and social intelligence are much greater determinants of the success you will achieve in life.
It has also been said that there is a connection between Emotional Intelligence and intuition. Emotional Intelligence and intuition are very different, but very connected skills. Studies have shown that individuals scoring higher in EI competencies are also more intuitive than lower-EI scoring individuals.
Our emotional skills also have a direct and important bearing on our relationships with others. When we understand our feelings, where they come from, and how to properly express them, we have a better chance of maintaining healthy relationships. We can bring our relationships to the next level by controlling our emotions, communicating our feelings in a constructive manner, and by better understanding the feelings of others.
Delayed gratification is another top predictor of future success. People who are able to pay the price today and delay the rewards are much more likely to succeed in life. Unfortunately we have become a nation seeking instant gratification. This shows up in our everyday lives in the foods we choose to eat, the buy now pay later plan, our inability to follow an exercise regime, and the mindless entertainment we engage in ahead of self-development.
The field of emotional intelligence has taught us much about how to self-regulate or self-manage our emotions―how to get into control, learn and direct our emotions in the most productive fashion. People vary widely in their abilities to be aware of and manage their emotions. Those with a lower ability (lower Emotional Intelligence) to do this will give in more frequently to impulses and make unhealthy choices like eating too much, getting sidetracked by emails, Facebook, phone calls or texts, or lashing out in a way that hurts another. Does any of this apply to you?
Another powerful direct connection is the one between our emotional health and our physical health. If our lives are filled with stress, our physical health suffers. It has been estimated that well over 80% of our health problems are stress related. We experience stress primarily because we are not comfortable emotionally.
The high EI individual, relative to others, is less apt to engage in problem behaviors, and more likely to avoid self-destructive, negative behaviors such as smoking, excessive drinking, drug abuse, or violent episodes with others. Unfortunately there is a direct connection between poor emotional skills and the rising crime rate.
There are many ways that you can improve not only your Emotional Intelligence, but the Emotional Intelligence in those around you as well. And….the sooner, the better. Doing so will benefit you and those whom you love both personally and professionally in profound ways.
Emotional Intelligence is a very important component in improving the fantastic life that you already have! As you know, I am a Genos-certified Emotional Intelligence coach. I am excited to announce that I have created a few different ways for you to improve your emotional intelligence through an EI assessment and debrief, one-on-one coaching or my upcoming Emotional Intelligence Group Coaching program. Please contact me or click on this link: https://energyiskey.coachesconsole.com/v2/energyiskey/website/about-emotional-intelligence-coaching.html for more details.