Good morning,
I haven't been on here in awhile, but in thinking of a place I "trust" that I might solicit some honest no BS opinions from, this forum came to mind, and I have a couple of questions at the bottom of this post.
This rambling "isn't" about entrepreneurship, but then again, it really is. Bear with me.
I (39m) just started the audiobook "Emotional Intelligence 2.0" as I go for my morning walks.
Relevant to the theme of this forum, the authors cite studies that have found direct correlations between emotional intelligence levels and the levels of personal and professional success experienced by people in virtually every field of work. In short, folks with higher EQ's are much more successful in all aspects of life than folks with lower EQ's, and EQ is a much more reliable predictor of success than IQ is.
In listening to the book (I'm still not quite finished), when hearing the examples of some folks with lower EQ scores, I was like, "Umm, yeah, I know people like that..." But then I started really listening, rewinding, listening, and I felt some doubts creeping up.
Part of the book entails taking an Emotional Intelligence test to get a score and get an idea of where you're at EQ-wise.
I'm not sure if I just bombed this somehow but I ended up with kind of a shockingly low score compared to what I was expecting. I was down there with the friggin angry lawyer from the book!
I know it's just an online test, but it was developed by professionals (as opposed to Buzzfeed) so it at least infers some measure of reliability as an indicator.
So now I'm trying to look back at my personal/professional life and figure out how this may have affected me in my various careers, and what this means for me as a person.
I'm just starting to really think about this as of this morning, so I'm nowhere near drawing any conclusions or making any kind of a breakthrough. But it's a bit of a gut-punch to see some outside evidence (reliable or not) that in some ways, I could have been my own worst enemy for many years.
While caring and kind to my siblings and me growing up, neither of my parents could probably be accurately assessed as the most socially adept of people, and I know it hurt my dad's career, and I know my mom made a lot of folks angry for her being the momma-bear. I'm wondering how all of that rubbed off on me.
So, relevant to the theme of this forum, I'm wondering if I shouldn't take a pause and perhaps adjust my priorities a bit here with my day-job and my entrepreneurial aspirations.
Up until now, my personal development efforts have largely been focused on technical and operational capabilities, with little to no effort being spent on this type of emotional development.
To start with, I'm going to finish the audiobook, probably buy the hardcopy to re-read, and really work on following through with that the authors recommend to improve your EQ capabilities.
But now I'm curious, and as this is a uniquely diverse community with people from all points on various spectrums, I was hoping to maybe get some advice and feedback:
Have any of you also experienced a similar painful epiphany that you may be an emotional idiot, and if so, where are you now and how did you get there?
What resources might some of you use or be aware of for someone wishing to improve themselves in the area of emotional intelligence? A quick google search reveals a plethora of similar-sounding books, expensive workshops, and a ton of short articles lacking a lot of substance.
Could this all be a sham, and I'm just fine the way I am?
I haven't been on here in awhile, but in thinking of a place I "trust" that I might solicit some honest no BS opinions from, this forum came to mind, and I have a couple of questions at the bottom of this post.
This rambling "isn't" about entrepreneurship, but then again, it really is. Bear with me.
I (39m) just started the audiobook "Emotional Intelligence 2.0" as I go for my morning walks.
Relevant to the theme of this forum, the authors cite studies that have found direct correlations between emotional intelligence levels and the levels of personal and professional success experienced by people in virtually every field of work. In short, folks with higher EQ's are much more successful in all aspects of life than folks with lower EQ's, and EQ is a much more reliable predictor of success than IQ is.
In listening to the book (I'm still not quite finished), when hearing the examples of some folks with lower EQ scores, I was like, "Umm, yeah, I know people like that..." But then I started really listening, rewinding, listening, and I felt some doubts creeping up.
Part of the book entails taking an Emotional Intelligence test to get a score and get an idea of where you're at EQ-wise.
I'm not sure if I just bombed this somehow but I ended up with kind of a shockingly low score compared to what I was expecting. I was down there with the friggin angry lawyer from the book!
I know it's just an online test, but it was developed by professionals (as opposed to Buzzfeed) so it at least infers some measure of reliability as an indicator.
So now I'm trying to look back at my personal/professional life and figure out how this may have affected me in my various careers, and what this means for me as a person.
I'm just starting to really think about this as of this morning, so I'm nowhere near drawing any conclusions or making any kind of a breakthrough. But it's a bit of a gut-punch to see some outside evidence (reliable or not) that in some ways, I could have been my own worst enemy for many years.
While caring and kind to my siblings and me growing up, neither of my parents could probably be accurately assessed as the most socially adept of people, and I know it hurt my dad's career, and I know my mom made a lot of folks angry for her being the momma-bear. I'm wondering how all of that rubbed off on me.
So, relevant to the theme of this forum, I'm wondering if I shouldn't take a pause and perhaps adjust my priorities a bit here with my day-job and my entrepreneurial aspirations.
Up until now, my personal development efforts have largely been focused on technical and operational capabilities, with little to no effort being spent on this type of emotional development.
To start with, I'm going to finish the audiobook, probably buy the hardcopy to re-read, and really work on following through with that the authors recommend to improve your EQ capabilities.
But now I'm curious, and as this is a uniquely diverse community with people from all points on various spectrums, I was hoping to maybe get some advice and feedback:
Have any of you also experienced a similar painful epiphany that you may be an emotional idiot, and if so, where are you now and how did you get there?
What resources might some of you use or be aware of for someone wishing to improve themselves in the area of emotional intelligence? A quick google search reveals a plethora of similar-sounding books, expensive workshops, and a ton of short articles lacking a lot of substance.
Could this all be a sham, and I'm just fine the way I am?
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