Hey quick-witted humans! We hope y’all are leading your beautiful lives on your own terms and doing splendidly well by virtue of exercising rationality in making decisions that matter to you!
Well, it’s needless to mention that due to the imposition of country-wide lockdowns, humans all over the world have experienced excruciating pangs of separation and isolation. While on the contrary, the free-spirited animals are living and thriving in close proximity to each other devoid of all restrictions, for the SARS-CoV-2 virus predominantly affects humans.
Every creature whether a man or an animal is irrevocably a social being. Nonetheless, there’s one aspect that sets humans apart from animals and that is our intelligence (IQ). Perhaps then there’s nothing wrong in asserting that we humans are nobody but intelligent animals belonging to the genus ‘homo’.
The power to think and imagine along with the cognitive abilities to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly and draw lessons from varied life experiences are a few of the multitudinous mental faculties that the homo sapiens species have been blessed with!
But is that all that we need to develop in order to lead a fulfilling life?
The unanimous opinion of the masses on IQ
There is no denying the fact that having a decent or super high IQ does help us throughout our lives as learning is a lifelong process and thereby, has its significance deep-rooted in the very lifestyle of human beings. Naturally, the majority of the ‘programmed’ population gives it paramount importance such that it is believed that anyone with a higher IQ succeeds substantially in all aspects of life than someone who has a lower IQ.
Not undermining/eroding its value, but is IQ all that matters?
Bursting the myth: Your IQ is all that matters
To start with, let’s replace the I in IQ with E.
EQ? What’s that?
Emotional intelligence, or emotional quotient (EQ), is defined as an individual’s ability to identify, evaluate, control, and express emotions. However, EQ is just not concerned with one’s own emotions. It also includes the ability to understand the sentiments of others so as to empathize and connect with people around.
It is not IQ Vs EQ rather/in fact they are complementary to each other
This can be understood through the following instances:
Instance 1)
Suppose, there’s an individual who’s an expert in his subject matter and does exceptionally well in his professional life. When circumstances are favorable, he is at the top of his game by conquering all kinds of complexities in his work. However, when things get toppled in his personal life or his world gets upside-down due to some misunderstanding at his workplace, emotions and feelings overwhelm him, thereby affecting his overall productivity to the greatest extent. Isn’t it ineludible to not be affected by our external environment unless one is numb or stone-hearted?
Well, it’s quite evident that IQ alone cannot help us sail through our degree programmes or professional jobs successfully. For if one fails to have good control over emotions, then one’s work or studies are inevitably hampered.
Inference: How can we even think of producing intended results while having our minds consumed in an erratic and frantic string of emotional episodes? Thus, a stable mindset is indeed a prerequisite for efficient performance.
Instance 2)
If one is already an emotionally intelligent person then such an individual knows well in advance how to manage one’s emotions, track his or her varying patterns of emotional behavior, be adequately sensitive to the emotional needs of others, etc.
Though IQ is something that develops till the age of 18, research suggests that it’s possible to raise one’s intelligence through certain brain-training activities.
Ergo, having a low or an average level of IQ cannot stop anyone from working on anything that requires skill development in their fields of interest.
Inference: With a considerable amount of control over one’s emotions on a daily basis, one can do wonders at his or her workplace. This is because when body, mind, and soul are at peace with each other and in a proper unison, the stability of mind adds substantially to the quality of work, resulting in immense value addition in one’s personal life as well to one’s organization/institution where one works/studies.
Thus, it is IQ along with EQ that decides the growth potential of an individual.
Sometimes, EQ has an upper hand over IQ in the long run
IQ is undeniably something that shall always help us achieve our goals while on the flip side, it’s our EQ that decides how far we are going to reach in life after having accomplished our innate desires. Even if we encounter obstacles and failures, it is EQ that shall determine our life’s future trajectory.
To illustrate, consider participating in a ‘Case Study Analysis’ Competition: On being declared a winner among thousands of participants, it is natural for emotions like happiness and exuberance to dominate our overall demeanor. There are two sets of possibilities: Let that victory get over our minds and have our ego inflated or rather exercise modesty and gratitude for the feat of success achieved. Both the courses of action have associated chain reactions capable of altering our relations with our peers in near future and may also have an impact on our attitude towards further competitions.
Now, what if an exactly opposite scenario takes place?. If the contest is lost, it brings along another set of possibilities. We can very easily lose our hearts and permit feelings of hopelessness and helplessness to envelop us or instead, we can take this defeat as a lesson and move forward.
Both EQ and IQ carry commensurate weightage in our lives
Thus, we as humans, need to give equal importance to both EQ and IQ to live a fulfilling and wholesome life. A perfect balance between the two is what should be aimed at. To conclude we would like to drop a quote by Daniel Goleman, the author of the book ‘Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ’ which perfectly sums up everything that we just covered:
“If your emotional abilities aren’t in hand, if you don’t have self-awareness, if you are not able to manage your distressing emotions, if you can’t have empathy and have effective relationships, then no matter how smart you are, you are not going to get very far.”