Over the last decade, the idea of emotional intelligence, or EQ, has
become more popular throughout the world. Unfortunately, not
many people understand what EQ the term is really about or why
it has become so popular over the last several years. Many
scientific studies have been conducted over the years and have
discovered that emotional intelligence is more important in life
than the average intelligence that is measured by the IQ scale.
These studies, which have been conducted by both American and
European universities, have proven that the common intelligence
responses account for less than 20 percent of our achievements
and successes in life, while the other 80 percent depends solely on
our emotional intelligence.
Everyone, from students to CEOs, is confronted by not only their
own emotions but the emotions of everyone around them. How
you manage these emotions has a significant impact on how other
people perceive us, as well as our effectiveness to get things done.
When you can increase your emotional intelligence, you can
become better equipped to respond to stressful situations around
you with a high degree of maturity. John Mayer, Peter Salovey,
and Konstantin Vasily Peterides are renowned researchers that
discovered people who have high emotional intelligence tend to
become better leaders and are excellent in everything they set out
to accomplish.
The first person to use the term emotional intelligence was Wayne
Payne in his doctoral thesis, A Study of Emotion: Developing
Emotional Intelligence. In his thesis, he compared the IQ and
emotional intelligence and determined that EQ was superior
because it covers a wide range of faculties and aspects of a
person’s behavior. Studying your emotional intelligence will help
you to understand the source and impact of your emotions better.
This is important because it helps to enhance one’s selfawareness. Studying your EQ will also provide you with the
opportunity to understand better the behavior of others and the
underlying reasons why they act the way they do.
Emotionally intelligent people can harmoniously reconcile what
their mind and reason tell them with the voice of their feelings
and emotions. Thanks to this skill, emotionally smart people are
self- confident, self-aware, creative, and energetic. They are also
much
more capable of handling stress and knowing how to get along
with others. They are more optimistically approaching their life
and don’t fear change. They are the people of success.