Your emotions are an ally in the navigation of your life, but without an understanding of your own drives you could be on a path, but the wrong one. Without an understanding of your blockages, you could be blocking the path of your own success in life, love and everything else.
Do you find that you often feel like others don’t get the point and it makes you impatient and frustrated? Or that you feel emotions are trivial and so you avoid them? Or do you struggle with motivating yourself to see something through? Or do you struggle with misunderstandings often in your intimate relationships or friendships? All these signs are areas of concern with your emotional intelligence. The good news is that your emotional intelligence is like a muscle that can be developed and improved upon with work.
Emotional intelligence is defined as “the ability to understand, manage, and effectively express one’s own feelings, as well as engage and navigate successfully with those of others.” In short emotional intelligence is a tool that helps you in your experience of life.
According to Forbes, “Emotional intelligence predicts people’s ability to regulate themselves, manage other people, and achieve success. Not everyone is born with it, but unlike IQ, emotional intelligence can be acquired and improved with practice.”
While Psychology today notes that, “Perhaps no aspect of EQ is more important than our ability to effectively manage our own negative emotions, so they don’t overwhelm us and affect our judgment. In order to change the way we feel about a situation, we must first change the way we think about it”
Their report on Emotional Intelligence goes on to say that “Emotional Intelligence is absolutely essential in the formation, development, maintenance, and enhancement of close personal relationships”
A review of yourself and your ability to regulate your emotions is something that is recommended for everyone to do regularly. Simply for the benefits of self-reflection on our lives and our ability to relate to the world.
If you’d like to uncover where you stand with your Emotional Intelligence for the purpose of seeing which areas you might need to work on, there are a few free online quizzes you can do.
Remember when you do, all weaknesses you find are simply strengths you have not yet improved on.
Test your own emotional intelligence with the help of these free EQ tests :