GREAT TRUTHS ABOUT GROWING OLD

Richard, a friend of mine, sent me this funny email entitled: "Summary of Life" and I'd like to share a funny excerpt from this article which I found interesting and can be really helpful if we all want to have a beautiful life!

GREAT TRUTHS ABOUT GROWING OLD

1) Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional. (funny but true! now i know why there are so many adults who happen to have growth gaps----emotionally!)

2) Forget the health food. I need all the preservatives I can get... ( to die young?!duh!)

3) When you fall down, you wonder what else you can do while you're down there. (and see if ther's "pagkaka-kitaan" somewhere down there!???!)

4) You're getting old when you get the same sensation from a rocking chair that you once got from a roller coaster. (nausea---nausea---now thats something!)

5) It's frustrating when you know all the answers but nobody bothers to ask you the questions. (remember--as we age--the wisdom increases!hahahahaha--duh?!

6) Time may be a great healer, but it's a lousy beautician. (like I care for the wrinkles!--botox please!)

7) Wisdom comes with age, but sometimes age comes alone. (very true! Tumpak!--I wonder why many are left with only age---sans the wisdom!).

Nurturing one's EI (Emotional Intelligence)

In my eight years of working with people, I have seen people who are superiorly intelligent in terms of cognitive aspects, such as memory and problem-solving--- but have very very low ability to manage their emotions!In a country where IQ have dominated the thinking on who is likely to succeed, the evidence is now clear that people skills are far more important when it comes to over-all success (total personal package!).Social scientists have long been aware that IQ tests are inadequate for predicting success in life. IQ scores account for as little as 25% in predicting future success in college. In the work environment, technical savvy and knowledge may contribute as little as four to ten percent towards performance effectiveness. Over ninety percent of effectiveness at work is attributed to one's emotional intelligence. People who can't identify or understand their own emotions often make bad decisions, no matter how much brain power they have. Even though the term has been misused and abused by many popularizers, I believe it rests on a firm scientific foundation---EQ, a term coined to express the measure of one's emotional intelligence, has been proposed as the answer to why some people with average IQs end up more successful in life than some with brilliant IQ scores. The concept of emotional intelligence became popular after the immense success of Daniel Goleman's book in 1995, Emotional Intelligence, Why It Can Matter More Than IQ. Ever since the publication of Daniel Goleman’s first book on the topic in 1995, emotional intelligence has become one of the hottest buzzwords in the world.

Most people have trouble managing situations that are emotionally charged, especially when the emotions aroused are anger and anxiety. When this difficulty is accompanied by, or causes, poor communications skills, then people really do get into trouble. The ability to predict and influence other people's emotions has to be one of the most important skills any person can have. Those individuals who are able to handle their emotions, not just the expression or regulation of them, but who are also able to generate the kinds of emotions that are productive and efficient, are indeed emotionally intelligent. The high EI individual, most centrally, can better perceive emotions, use them in thought, understand their meanings, and manage emotions, than others.They're particularly good at establishing positive social relationships with others, and avoiding conflicts, fights, and other social altercations.

It is useful to look at Goleman's five major factors of emotional intelligence. He summarizes emotional intelligence into the following components:

1. Emotional self-awareness
2. Managing one's own emotions
3. Using emotions to maximize intellectual processing and decision-making, including self-motivation
4. Developing empathy
5. The art of social relationships and managing emotions in others

We hope that with this little information--we will all move forward towards nurturing our own emotional intelligence so that as human beings---connected to eachother--we can live together with greater harmony and satisfaction.