When people talk about AI, they take into consideration the human’s decision-making abilities. The emotional part or, should I say, the illogical side is not given much importance. But it’s the components of emotional intelligence, and not only the IQ, which decide someone’s success.

Throughout our lives, our emotions help us in taking actions. And the emotional intelligence is a set of skills helping you in recognizing emotions – yours and others – and also, managing them. 

In job success, academic success and many other fields, the impact of emotional intelligence is more than the IQ. And unlike IQ, we can develop our Emotional Quotient (EQ) throughout life.

The book – Emotional intelligence – gives you an insight into the nature of emotional intelligence and its impact on our lives. Written by Daniel Goleman, it shows us ways to boost our emotional intelligence and thus, bring a positive outlook on life.

Daniel is an award-winning psychologist who writes about the relationships between emotions and performance.

Listen to the summary at Blinkist or listen to the book at Audible.

Emotions help us learn

Empathy and emotions help with learning who we actually are and how we and other feel.

Emotions aren’t useful only during romance or fights. They help us in a lot of decision making, and even interacting with and understanding others. 

You may feel that emotions hold us back, but that’s only one side of the story. Those feelings help us in learning things. How? Our brain, which is a storehouse of our memories, also keeps the related feelings alongside.

For example, when you touch a hot stove, you feel discomfort and may also burn yourselves. And the brain keeps this feeling of pain in the memory, thus, keeping you away from danger. 

The power of emotions also helps us in knowing what someone is feeling, just by someone’s body language. It’s our emotions which make us feel threatened and alert when seeing someone with clenched fists. Without the emotions, we won’t see it coming unless attacked.

By having a sense of self awareness we can reflect on our own feelings to help improve our emotional intelligence. The first step for you on this path might be to take this what's my character personality test, this might give you a better idea of your personality type so you can better understand how your personality interacts with others around you.

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But those emotions sometimes, also cloud our thinking. You may find yourselves overreacting and see imaginary things. It happens because, at times, our rational brain doesn’t get time to react and instead, the emotional part takes the initiative. Therefore, we need to learn the importance of self-awareness and gain emotional intelligence.

Benefits of Emotional Intelligence

One of the benefits of self-awareness is that you can recognize your feelings and tailor them to your liking.

One of the components of emotional intelligence is the power to recognize your feelings. And once you are aware of self, you can manage your feelings, the way you like. When you are able to tell what you feel, you can also find out what causes them. Your feelings depend on how you think about a situation.

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You may find yourself angry when a friend passes you without acknowledging, but one of the benefits applied emotional intelligence offers, is suggesting you alternatives. 

You will realize that the friend may not have seen you or was too busy in his thoughts to be aware of the surrounding. Emotional intelligence, thus, helps calm you down.

Not only you but with emotional intelligence, social awareness also develops. It helps you get in someone else’s shoes and help you understand how others feel in a particular situation. 

Your Emotional Quotient also tells you about someone’s mood without any verbal cues. It helps you empathize with others and you can, thus, make them feel better.

People who have components of emotional intelligence also prove to be more successful in getting work done. They can control their urges and be more productive, even with an average IQ. 

Also, they know how not to hurt others’ feelings and can maintain good social relationships. Such people thus, prove to be better managers and teachers than others.

The IQ vs. EQ debate

Along with IQ, the components of emotional intelligence like self regulation are extremely important to leading a successful life.

As said above, IQ isn’t the only thing that contributes to a successful life. The role of the EQ also is significant. Those who have higher levels of emotional intelligence lead a contented life and are more successful. And a study by Stanford University confirmed that.

They studied a group of four-year-olds and checked their ability to resist a treat. And years later, those who were successful in controlling their impulses got superior academic skills. 

Another among the components of emotional intelligence – the social skills – also were higher in those kids. And it’s not all; your EQ also affects your health.

Stress, for example, can have a range of effects on your body. It affects your heart and also the immune system. But, those with higher emotional intelligence (i.e., higher EQ) could avoid stress. 

Read more: Comparison of IQ and EQ

For those who are high on emotional intelligence, self-regulation is easy. They can control their anger and anxiety, which leads to lower stress levels and chances of heart diseases.

Emotional intelligence though is a result of a balance between the thinking brain and the feeling brain. So, you can say, the IQ and the EQ, both complement each other. Let’s take an example. 

When we hear a loud bang, it’s the emotional part of the brain that makes us alert to a threat. But it’s the rational brain which analyses the situation and calms us down.

This working together of the two parts stops you from overacting to every loud noise you hear. And break in this link, either by lobotomy or accidental damage, results in the lack of emotional intelligence.

Emotional Intelligence Development Plan

Developing emotional intelligence can drastically increase your social skills.

Those with poor emotional intelligence find it hard to control their desires, and also, can’t read people’s expressions. These deficiencies contribute to increasing crimes, drug abuses, and even sex offenses. 

But, those who grow with people having high emotional intelligence, can better regulate their urges. Moreover, you can develop those skills further.

There are few easy steps to do so –

• Practice inner dialogues to recognise your feelings and develop self-awareness and self-management.
• Try to mirror people’s body language, understand what they’re going through and thus, improve your empathy.
• Believing in yourself, knowing that failures are the result of your actions and you can change them, can induce self-motivation.

Read more: ways to improve your emotional intelligence

These things can, not only make you more positive at an emotional level but also enhance your health and relationship with others. 

Self-awareness, self-management, self-motivation, empathy and social skills are the five components of emotional intelligence.

Start working on them today.