5 ways to help you develop emotional intelligence
Emotional intelligence is someone’s ability to identify, evaluate, control, and express their emotions. People with high EQ are most of the time incredible leaders, because of their ability to understand, empathize, and connect with the people around them. And you know what? Everyone can increase their emotional intelligence because it can be developed, just like a skill, and I am going to explain YOU what you need to be working on, in order to do that.
1. Increase your self-awareness
Emotionally intelligent individuals have high levels of self awareness. Self awareness is about learning to better understand why you feel a certain way and how your actions, thoughts, or emotions do or do not align with your core values. Practicing self-awareness is key to develop emotional intelligence, because you’ll be able to recognize your own emotions and how they affect your thoughts and behavior. You start knowing your strengths and weaknesses which also leads to being more confident about yourself.
Emotions are simply triggers for us, human beings, to pay attention to something. It’s up to us to decide the importance of it and what to do with it. One important thing to remember is that there are no BAD emotions, nor good emotions. The only things which are good and bad, is how we respond to those emotions. Two great examples of this are the emotions of anger and joy. Let’s first take the anger-example: When we're angry, we can start destroying stuff or slap someone in the face, but we can also use anger to turn it into a motivator and to becoming better than ever. Let’s say you messed up a certain project. Instead of destroying stuff, channel your anger and turn it into energy to make your next project better than anyone could ever expect. Now let’s talk about the joy example: Joy can be amazing when you share your joyfulness with your loved ones when something amazing happened in your life, but it can be a terrifying emotion when you experience joy after you've hurt someone. Unfortunately, that happens as well in the world we live in, but the point here is that being conscious of what you’re feeling and being in control of how you respond to it, is key.
As mentioned earlier, emotional intelligent people are able to empathize and connect with the people around them on a high level. When you communicate consciously and think before you actually say something, you’ll be able to communicate better which leads to building stronger and more meaningful relationships. Many times we say things out of emotion or on autopilot, while we can do a lot better than that! Like I just said - being in control. Take some time to analyze certain past events where you found yourself communicating not on the level you wished you would have been communicating, and think about how you can do better next time.
Empathy is the ability to see and feel things from the perspective of someone else. It contributes to developing a better understanding of the situation someone else is in. Listen carefully to what others are saying to you, look at their body language and try to observe any physical signs of emotions. Try to come up with questions to get the conversation to another level. By asking the right questions, you will understand better what someone is experiencing and it’s important to respect whatever they’re going through (even if you disagree!). Remember not to judge. Great relationships start with recognition and respect of what someone else needs emotionally and to accept that person the way that person is.
To raise your EQ, which stands for emotional quotient, which is emotional intelligence, significantly, find ways to motivate yourself. People who are emotionally intelligent are self-motivated and their attitude motivates others. They set goals and are not afraid of challenges. By the way, if you want to know how to smash your goals, make sure you watch this video about the best way to set your goals. OK, back to self-motivation - The way how I often motivate myself, is to visualize the end result of something. It really gets me going! Take working on my YouTube channel for example - I'm definitely not always in the mood to work on it, but when I visualize myself having a lot of engagement and a lot of subscribers who value my content, I get energized and motivated!
It takes time to develop higher levels of emotional intelligence, like it does with any skill you want to learn. Every challenge you will face, conversations you will have or situations you'll be in, are all opportunities to take your EQ to the test. When you start implementing the 5 ways I just explained, I expect you to start noticing the benefits very fast. You’ll notice this in your relationships and actually in all areas of your life.
Let me know in the comments down below if you have any questions. Thank you so much for visiting, and I’ll see you in the next one. Don't forget to like and subscribe to my YouTube channel and share this video/article with anyone who could possibly benefit from it.
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