Better's Blinkist

What’s in it for me? Understand the emotions of yourself and others.

ut one of the most important determinants of professional success is actually emotional intelligence, which you can learn outside of school. These blinks will show you how to increase your emotional intelligence and guide you through the steps to becoming a better leader, coworker or partner. They will also reveal how mindfulness can improve your happiness.

18 June, 2020 05:53 Share

You must first develop your capacity to direct your attention as you see fit, and here mindfulness meditation is very useful. With this improved attention, you can get a better understanding of your own cognitive and emotional processes, increasing your self-knowledge. Finally, building on this foundation, you can establish good mental habits for yourself that will increase your happiness and effectiveness.

18 June, 2020 05:54 Share

The basic principle behind the methodology is a three-step approach: You must first develop your capacity to direct your attention as you see fit, and here mindfulness meditation is very useful. With this improved attention, you can get a better understanding of your own cognitive and emotional processes, increasing your self-knowledge. Finally, building on this foundation, you can establish good mental habits for yourself that will increase your happiness and effectiveness.

18 June, 2020 05:54 Share

In these blinks, you’ll discover the different types of emotional intelligence; how meditation benefits your happiness; and that empathy can save your relationships.

18 June, 2020 05:55 Share

Emotional intelligence is one of many different types of intelligence.

Howard Gardner, a developmental psychologist at Harvard, was the first to propose a theory of multiple intelligences. He argued that a child who lacked skills in math, but showed talent in languages or the arts, for example, should still be considered intelligent. To illustrate his argument, Gardner came up with a list of different types of intelligence, which includes among other items intrapersonal intelligence and interpersonal intelligence. Having intrapersonal intelligence means being aware of your own inner feelings, values and goals. Interpersonal intelligence, on the other hand, involves awareness of the feelings, emotions and motivations of others.

18 June, 2020 06:05 Share

The author of the book Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman, grouped emotional intelligence into five categories: Self-awareness is your knowledge about your internal state and about your preferences, resources and intuition. Self-regulation is the ability to control your impulses, resources and state of mind. Motivation is the emotional ability to steer yourself toward your goals. Empathy is your awareness of others’ feelings, needs and concerns. And the final category is social skills: your ability to influence others.

18 June, 2020 06:06 Share

Through emotional-intelligence training, Duane realized that he needed more time for himself and reduced his workdays to four a week. With one less day of work, he found the time to focus more on his well-being, and became motivated to accomplish more while doing less. He became a better listener, learned how to regulate his temper and to understand situations from different perspectives. As a result, Duane became a more effective manager, not only improving his life, but also the lives of those who worked for him.

18 June, 2020 06:07 Share

With practice, emotional intelligence can drastically improve your work performance.

One advantage of developing your emotional intelligence is that it can lead to better work performance. For example, a higher level of motivation – one of the five categories of emotional intelligence – increases optimism, which in turn will improve your performance at work, as shown by a study conducted in the 1980s by American psychologist Martin Seligman. He found that, in their first year of sales, optimistic insurance agents outperformed their pessimistic colleagues by 8 percent and by 31 percent the following year. The study demonstrates that emotional competencies such as optimism can have a considerable effect on employee performance. Understanding and possessing emotional intelligence can also make you a better leader.

18 June, 2020 06:08 Share

Ebenezer Scrooge from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is a case in point. In the beginning, Scrooge demonstrates very low levels of intrapersonal emotional intelligence, and, despite his wealth, he is unable to feel happy. As you likely recall, Scrooge is visited by three ghosts, who each seek to counteract his poor self-awareness. In the end, by coming to terms with his thoughts and actions, Scrooge succeeds in improving his emotional intelligence. You, too, can improve your emotional intelligence – even without the help of supernatural visitors. So let’s look at some real-world techniques on how you can achieve that.

18 June, 2020 06:09 Share

Meditation improves concentration, relaxation and alertness, and it makes us happier.

Meditation might seem like something magical, but it’s really nothing more than a mental workout. Just as the many training machines at the gym are designed to exercise different muscles, so different types of meditation are designed to exercise different parts of your mind. The best mental training for developing emotional intelligence is called mindful meditation, or just mindfulness. It improves our concentration by training both our attention and meta attention.

18 June, 2020 06:11 Share

Attention, as defined by the late nineteenth-century psychologist William James, is "taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form." Conversely, meta attention is "attention of attention." It’s your ability to realize when you’re paying attention, or when your attention has wavered. To demonstrate this, imagine riding a bicycle. When cycling, you maintain your balance with lots of micro-recoveries. If the bike leans one way, you adjust yourself to the other side, and vice versa. Performing these micro-recoveries keeps you upright and balanced, creating the sensation of a smooth ride. The same goes for attention. When your meta attention is trained well, you can perform a micro-recovery every time you begin to lose focus, bringing your attention back to the task at hand. Doing this often enough will lead to long periods of deep concentration.

18 June, 2020 06:11 Share

mindfulness also clears your head and helps you become more relaxed. Picture a pot of water, full of sediment, that’s constantly being stirred, causing it to turn cloudy. If you stop stirring and leave the pot alone, the water will become calm and clear, and the sediment will sink to the bottom. Similarly, when you relax your mind, your stresses and anxieties will sink to the bottom, allowing you to see more clearly.

18 June, 2020 06:12 Share

clearing your mind through meditation helps it reach its natural state of happiness. To get started with mindfulness meditation, find a comfortable sitting position where you feel relaxed and alert at the same time. Start by taking three slow, deep breaths and then begin to breathe naturally. Now focus your attention on your breath. This can mean observing, for example, the rise and fall of your abdomen or the sensation in your nostrils. Whenever you find your attention has drifted, gently bring it back to your breath. You can do this for ten minutes or however much time feels right to you.

18 June, 2020 06:12 Share