Emotional Intellect. Part 3 - Reviews, Self-development

Publishing excerpts from the book

Daniel Goleman, an American psychologist and recognized expert in the field of emotional intelligence, argues that our emotions play a much larger role in achieving success in the family and at work than is commonly believed

• Emotional intellect. Why it can matter more than IQ
• Daniel Goleman
• Mann, Ivanov and Ferber. Moscow, 2018

Read also:

• Emotional intellect. Part 1
• Emotional intellect. Part 2

The fact that emotional disorders tend to interfere with mental life is not new to educators. Students, for one reason or another, anxious, irritated or depressed, do not learn the knowledge. People who find themselves at the mercy of such states do not perceive information properly or are not able to completely process it. Powerful negative emotions shift attention to what actually causes them, making it difficult to focus on something else. One of the signs that feelings, having changed direction, moved into the field of pathology, is the following: they become so intrusive that they suppress other thoughts, constantly sabotaging attempts to pay attention to any other pressing task.

A person experiencing a painful divorce, or a child whose parents are getting divorced, does not have a mind for long on a trivial work or school routine. For those suffering from clinical depression, self-pity and despair, hopelessness and helplessness override all other thoughts.

When emotions interfere with concentration, the “mental capacity” is the first to fail. Cognitive scientists call it working memory. In other words, the ability to keep in mind all the information relevant to the problem being solved.

The information in working memory can be as simple as the numbers that make up a phone number, or extremely complex, like intricate storylines that the writer tries to weave together. In mental life, the administrative function is assigned to the working memory, which ensures the flow of all other intellectual processes - from pronouncing a phrase to comprehending a complex logical judgment. The role of working memory is played by the prefrontal area of the cerebral cortex. There, as you know, feelings and emotions converge. If the limbic circuitry, close to the prefrontal cortex, is dominated by emotional distress, one of the consequences is a loss in the effectiveness of working memory: we are unable to collect our thoughts,as I had the opportunity to be convinced on that terrible exam in mathematics.

Now let's look at the role of positive motivation - that is, enthusiasm, zeal and self-confidence - in achieving success. Research conducted with Olympic champions, world-class musicians and chess grandmasters has shown that they all have one thing in common - the ability to find the incentive to relentlessly follow a specific training regimen. And with the ever-increasing degree of excellence that is required to remain a world-class performer, these rigorous training must begin at an earlier age. In the 1992 Olympic Games, a 12-year-old Chinese diving team competed in diving. During their lives, they spent as much time training as members of the American team, who were in their twenties. Only Chinese athletes have started training in a severe regime since the age of four. Likewise, the virtuoso violinists of the twentieth century began their studies at the age of five, and the world-class chess champions first sat down at the chessboard at an average age of seven. Those who started at ten years old did not rise above the level of a national celebrity. An earlier start also provides an advantage in terms of duration: the most successful violin students at the best music school in Berlin, who were barely twenty years old, practiced violin for a total of ten thousand hours. Second-level students average about seven and a half thousand hours. Likewise, the virtuoso violinists of the twentieth century began their studies at the age of five, and the world-class chess champions first sat down at the chessboard at an average age of seven. Those who started at ten years old did not rise above the level of national celebrity. An earlier start also provides an advantage in terms of duration: the most successful violin students at the best music school in Berlin, who were barely twenty years old, practiced violin for a total of ten thousand hours. Second-level students average about seven and a half thousand hours. Likewise, the virtuoso violinists of the twentieth century began their studies at the age of five, and the world-class chess champions first sat down at the chessboard at an average age of seven. Those who started at ten years old did not rise above the level of a national celebrity. An earlier start also provides an advantage in terms of duration: the most successful violin students of the best music school in Berlin, who were barely twenty years old, practiced violin for a total of ten thousand hours. Second-level students average about seven and a half thousand hours.have not risen above the level of a national celebrity. An earlier start also provides an advantage in terms of duration: the most successful violin students of the best music school in Berlin, who were barely twenty years old, practiced violin for a total of ten thousand hours. Second-level students average about seven and a half thousand hours.have not risen above the level of a national celebrity. An earlier start also provides an advantage in terms of duration: the most successful violin students at the best music school in Berlin, who were barely twenty years old, practiced violin for a total of ten thousand hours. Second-level students average about seven and a half thousand hours.

Perhaps what separates those who have advanced in competitive pursuits from other people of roughly the same ability is the extent to which, having started early, they can follow a routine of grueling practice over the years. And tenacity depends on the emotional characteristics of a person - primarily on enthusiasm and resilience in the face of failure.

To what extent our emotions interfere with or enhance our ability to think and plan, to persevere for some distant goal, to solve problems, and the like. To this extent, they set the limits of our ability to use our innate mental faculties and therefore determine how we act in life. And to the extent that we are guided in our pursuits by feelings of enthusiasm, pleasure, even reasonable anxiety - to the same extent they motivate us to achieve. Therefore, the emotional mind is the main endowment, the ability to deeply influence all other abilities, either helping or hindering them.