How’s Your EIQ?
By Nina Atwood
You’re sitting at Starbucks. Across from you is an attractive person. You’re engaged in the conversation. Now what? If you’re dating smart, you’re focused on more than the words being spoken, more than the person’s face, hair, body, and muscle tone. If you’re dating smart, you’re focusing on what’s not being said. You’re listing carefully, paying attention to the emotional undertones. In short, you’re using your Emotional I.Q. so that you make a wise choice about going forward.
How’s your EIQ (emotional intelligence quotient)? If you haven’t heard the term, or if you don’t know what it means, Daniel Goleman is the master on the subject. In a nutshell, emotional intelligence is the ability to use a balance of logic and intuition (relying on internal emotional feedback) to discern the truth of a situation and to take appropriate action. In dating, it means that you can take in body language, verbal expression, facial expression, and listen to your gut reaction. You trust your gut reaction so that you aren’t easily swayed by someone else’s persuasive powers.
Then there’s social intelligence – the ability to empathize with others, not just cognitively, but also emotionally and compassionately. This is powerful bonding glue in relationships as it enables us to care for another human being for a lifetime. For example, if you’re socially intelligent, you know that you must get an online relationship offline as soon as possible in order to begin discerning the real potential.
In the next post we’ll look at ways to build your EIQ for better relationships and overall life happiness.
Entry Filed under: Personal Growth
