For all of us, emotional intelligence encompasses five basic areas of mastery. They are:
– Knowing your feelings and using them to make life decisions you can live with.
– Being able to manage your emotional life without being hijacked by it — not being paralyzed by depression or worry, or swept away by anger.
– Persisting in the face of setbacks and channeling your impulses in order to pursue your goals.
– Empathy — reading other people’s emotions without their having to tell you what they are feeling.
– Handling feelings in relationships with skill and harmony – being able to articulate the unspoken pulse of a group, for example.
The scope of these skills means there is indeed room for all of us to learn, grow, and improve. There is a lot to learn here. Learning about emotional intelligence, learning about the tools for energy efficiency; that’s only the beginning. It’s like reading all the books on sailing and small boat sailing. You then have the theory mastered, but you have no hands-on practice. It’s only with practice that we gain mastery of anything....