Emotional intelligence, also known as emotional quotient (EQ), is the ability to understand, assess, and manage your emotions to build relationships, handle conflicts, and deal with how others feel. Having a high EQ can help you enrich your life. A college degree or any formal education cannot directly boost your EQ. While you can improve your intelligence quotient (IQ) as you gain new knowledge, you cannot guarantee that emotional intelligence (EQ) comes with this process as well. There are those with a high IQ who don’t know how to empathize with other people.
Having high emotional intelligence is necessary if you want to succeed in different aspects of life. It entails not only the things that you should do, but also those that you shouldn’t do. While you can’t be a perfect person, being mature is something that can be evident based on how you think, speak, and act. Here are the things emotionally intelligent people don’t do.
1. They don’t blame other people
Emotionally unintelligent people always look for others to blame when things go wrong. They can’t accept the fact that they have a fair share of mistakes that caused the undesirable outcome. On the other hand, people who are emotionally intelligent assess their own fault and think of what they can do to resolve the issue. They are aware of their accountability and do something to make it work.
2. They don’t behave insensitively
They speak and act properly as a wise response to other people’s emotions. If something is wrong with how a person feels, they know how to react and respond with composure and sensitivity so the person will not be offended. Having enough empathy is a mark of maturity. Since it is not taught in school, a person who is highly empathetic is intelligent beyond measure.
3. They don’t gossip
Instead of spreading gossip about other people’s imperfections and private lives, they focus their attention on either great ideas or commendable deeds. They are concerned more about the topics that are beneficial to both their professional and personal development. They know that gossiping will not do any good to them and might only cause defamation of character to the people involved.
4. They don’t engage in self-pity
Even if they are responsible for their own mistakes, people who have high EQ don’t degrade themselves. But it’s not about being better than others. It’s just that they know their unique characteristics. So, even if they commit mistakes and experienced failures, they choose to learn from them and get up without losing even a bit of self-worth. Emotionally intelligent people don’t sabotage themselves by engaging in negative self-talk.
The level of your emotional intelligence determines how mature you are. Being emotionally intelligent allows you to succeed in the most essential things in life such as taking care of your relationships with the people valuable to you. This wisdom also helps you overcome the challenges that come your way. More importantly, it’s an ability that lets you have a great relationship with yourself. It always starts with you — one of the secrets to success.
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