Emotional intelligence is the “something” in each of us that is a bit intangible. It affects how we manage behavior, navigate social complexities, and make personal decisions that achieve positive results. Author and Forbes contributor Dr. Travis Bradberry explains the core skills you’ll need to embrace this discipline and why it’s critical for leaders in today’s corporate environment.

Part of unlocking your Godly destiny may require you to be highly emotional intelligent.  We pray that you will embrace the help of the Holy Spirit in your life as you seek a higher degree of self-control - especially as it relates to your emotions.

This article comes to us from the Global Leadership Summit's website.  They share, "There are a ton of qualities that can help you succeed, and the more carefully a quality has been studied, the more you know it’s worth your time and energy.

Angela Lee Duckworth was teaching seventh grade when she noticed that the material wasn’t too advanced for any of her students. They all could grasp the material if they put in the time and effort. Her highest performing students weren’t those who had the most natural talent; they were the students who had that extra something that motivated them to work harder than everyone else.

Angela grew fascinated by this “extra something” in her students and, since she had a fair amount of it herself, she quit her teaching job so she could study the concept while obtaining a graduate degree in psychology at UPenn.

Her ongoing study has already yielded some interesting findings. She’s analyzed a bevy of people to whom success is important: students, military personnel, salespeople, and spelling bee contestants—to name a few. Over time, she has concluded that the majority of successful people all share one critical thing—GRIT.

Grit is that “extra something” that separates the most successful people from the rest. It’s the passion, perseverance and stamina that we must channel in order to stick with our dreams until they become a reality.

Developing grit is all about habitually doing the things that no one else is willing to do.

There are quite a few signs that you have grit, and if you aren’t doing the following on a regular basis, you should be. 

So, what are some of the aspects of grit as it relates to emotional intelligence?  They include:

Social Skills

The first key social skill is to be able to recognize the emotion that the other person is feeling. If this is incorrect, then all social responses flowing from the mistaken emotional identification will also be incorrect. The second key social skill is to respond in an appropriate and in-context manner. The context of all Christian social skills is Spirit-filled AGAPE love.

Christians And Emotions

Like it or not, God has made us to be emotional beings. He wants us to have emotions – His emotions. He wants us to weep over the lost, be moved with compassion for the oppressed, be outraged by injustice, provoked by idolatry and angry at the hard of heart. He wants us to love the sheep in our charge, be caught up in the agony of intercession and have hearts full of hope.

The Christian life, properly lived, is awash in emotion. However, it is not merely sentimental, trite, or unstable. Truly Christian emotions have a majesty about them. They resonate with the Kingdom and participate in and agree with the Truth.

The Role Of The Mind

(Romans 8:4-6 NKJV) that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. {5} For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. {6} For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

The decisive factor in Biblical EQ is the Mind of the believer. If it is set on the flesh and we are carnally minded the result is death. If it is set on the Spirit and we are spiritually minded the result is life and peace. Chapter after chapter of Biblical EQ has demonstrated the truth of those two statements in Romans.

Emotions Affect Us Physically

(Psalms 31:9-10 NKJV) Have mercy on me, O LORD, for I am in trouble; My eye wastes away with grief, Yes, my soul and my body! {10} For my life is spent with grief, And my years with sighing; My strength fails because of my iniquity, And my bones waste away. We are incarnate, in the body, and our soul, spirit and body interact and communicate.

Beliefs Are Formed In Community

A large percentage of our beliefs are passed on to us from the groups we belong to – such as families, friendship groups, nations, cultures, schools, colleges, the military, political parties, and our local church. Communities have formed both our formal and informal beliefs, our doctrines, our prejudices our hopes and our fears. If beliefs are critical to our emotional health and beliefs are formed in community then fairly logically having the right kind of community will be a big help in emotional transformation.

Your Internal World

The “thoughts and intentions of the heart" are our internalized beliefs, They include formal beliefs (such as theological beliefs) and informal and more personal beliefs such as "No-one could possibly love me". These beliefs or thoughts of your heart are often reflected in what psychologists call your “self-talk” which is the “chatter” that goes on inside you as you are doing things “I wish Susan would call, I bet she won’t, …”

Our Beliefs

These beliefs are our idea about what is true or untrue, possible or impossible, plausible or implausible. They contain our conclusions about life and beliefs about God, others, and ourselves. Unlike perspectives, beliefs can generally be compressed into a single sentence such as “I believe that Jesus is God” or “I think I am totally unlovable”.

Perception & Life Perspective

Each of us perceives life in certain ways, we have a certain stance on life, a way of viewing things, a life perspective. We are optimistic, pessimistic, see ourselves as powerful or helpless, as victims or change agents, etc. We also have ways of explaining reality to ourselves – our explanatory style. Our explanations about reality later form our beliefs -so how we explain the world to ourselves is of vital importance.