I have enjoyed writing about emotional intelligence, and what excites me, even more is that a handful of people who read the articles (or heard me talk about EI) have been awakened to its importance in their lives—family, business, and relationships.
This last article will highlight the challenges on the path to developing emotional intelligence and how to overcome them.
If you’ve not read previous articles, you can start from here.
Growth Is Always Tough
Over the years, we’ve built habits, beliefs, and philosophies that have prevented us from growing into the best versions of ourselves. The first step, which is the most important in the journey towards growth, is realising that you need to change.
A lot of people might not be able to take the step and pass this level because they are convinced that their way of life is the best. But if you’ve been able to defeat your ego and accept the truth that you need to grow, I am happy for you because you’ve made the first and most critical step in your journey to becoming a better person by pursuing emotional intelligence.
I just told you about the first challenge there, and that is you!
In the growth journey, our greatest friend is us, and our greatest enemy is us. If we can conquer ourselves and push past our ego, the sky will be the starting point.
In the pursuit of emotional intelligence, you’ll have to leave your comfort zone and become uncomfortable as you begin to conform to a new way of reacting to your own emotions and responding to the feelings (emotions) of others.
Sometimes, it will be painful, and you’ll ache, boil, and itch inside. Don’t worry; you’re becoming a better person. Even if you fail in some aspects, don’t give up; pick yourself up and keep learning.
You must be persistent enough to overcome any obstacle that comes your way. Look at the glory ahead and tap comfort from that vision of you in the future.
It’s never going to be a quick fix.
It will take months, and even years, to finally get into the required emotional shape that sets you on the path to emotional intelligence and leadership success.
Celebrate your victories, no matter how small, and learn from your mistakes.
How can we overcome the challenges?
- Put On The Right Mindset: The growth mindset that’s the right mindset. The one that only sees possibilities and potential in every situation.
- Your Weaknesses Are Not Permanent: You can overcome them with the right amount of discipline and dedication.
- Find Support: The first kind of support you need is the right source of inspiration, motivation and education from books, websites, or courses. Then, be on the lookout for people who are mature enough and accommodating to be part of your community or group. They should be individuals who are also building emotional intelligence or have built themselves over the years and are still dedicated to growth and development.
- Be Patient With Yourself: Building new character and habits takes time. Give yourself enough allowance and be patient. You might not notice any progress quickly, but as you keep at it, you’ll begin to observe that you’re actually improving.
As a healthcare professional, being emotionally intelligent is your superpower, regardless of whether you’re in clinical practice, research, leadership, or any other area. Emotional intelligence serves as your secret passport to achieving professional greatness.
The Effects Of Emotional Intelligence
The effects of emotional intelligence are always far-reaching and positive. Becoming emotionally intelligent helps in all ramifications of life—personal life, relationships, family, business, and all types and forms of relationships.
Emotionally intelligent individuals will experience very little friction in their personal development journeys.
I like to think of emotional intelligence as the oil that makes running relationships easy. Without it, we would always have friction, producing too much heat and wear and tear between us and the people around us.
If you want to have a solid relationship with yourself, you first need to consider becoming emotionally intelligent. The same thing goes with any other type of relationship. Pursuing emotional intelligence and building relationships in other areas would be easier.
The Implications For Healthcare Professionals
To sum up, I would like to address healthcare professionals, who are a big part of our community.
In your career as a healthcare professional, being emotionally intelligent is your superpower, whether you’re in the clinical area, research, leadership or wherever you are. Being emotionally intelligent is your secret passport to professional greatness.
Healthcare professionals who don’t care about developing emotional intelligence will always experience friction, stress, and troubles with themselves and people as they navigate their professional lives.
Remember, I called emotional intelligence the oil that reduces friction in relationships, and healthcare professionals are among the professionals who need a very high dose of emotional intelligence.
If you’re having trouble getting along with people as a healthcare professional, you might need to dedicate more time to building emotional intelligence, especially if you’re a patient-facing professional or someone who interacts with people regularly—physically or virtually.
You know what to do now—pursue emotional intelligence.
Conclusion
Thank you for reading and staying with us all through this series. We’ve started compiling the articles in a small booklet for you to always study (we’ll expand the booklet to include more information and resources).
Over the course of this series, we started with an introduction to emotional intelligence and then looked at its components; we also took some time to understand Emotional Intelligence and Cognitive Intelligence, and then we studied the practical ways to develop emotional intelligence.
The aim of this series is to inspire healthcare professionals and everyone to pursue emotional intelligence.
We want people to become better leaders and innovators, and emotional intelligence is one of the primary ingredients needed.
We’ll be starting another exciting series in January.
It’s going to be packed with enough information to inspire you to do more and become the best version of yourself as a healthcare professional and anyone interested in leadership, innovation, and entrepreneurship.
Catch you soon and keep enjoying your holiday.
