How to Improve Your Emotional Intelligence in Just 21 Days?

The ability to recognize, manage and hence quickly reduce stress is known as emotional intelligence. It also covers ones abilities to communicate with others nonverbally, solve problems with confidence and use humor to deal with any challenges that might come your way.

Many people say that emotional intelligence also commonly known as EQ is an inborn character while others still believe that it is a trait one can improve. In order to achieve maximum emotional intelligence, you not only need to learn how to improve it but also how to apply it in real life.

Here you will take a 21 day journey for improving your emotional intelligence.

Day 1: Learn How to Reduce Stress

Stress has quite a number of negative impacts in your day to day activities; for instance your body can become stressed to an extent that you do not hear even when others are talking to you, you lack full control of your body. This can lead to doing things that are in contrast to what you should do.

Stress is a normal thing in life, in case you get yourself in such a situation quickly calm yourself down in order to be more focused and have the strength to overcome any challenges that might come your way.

In order to overcome stress, you need to be aware of when you are stressed, understand how your body responds to stress and finally identify the best mechanism that can help you overcome stress.

Remember each individual has different reaction to stress and therefore will require different measures to overcome the stress.

Day 2: Fully Understand the Significance of EQ in Your Life

High emotional intelligence has quite a number of advantages in your life; in fact it makes life very easy and enjoyable for you. Once you understand all the significances of EQ in your life, you will be more motivated in improving it at any cost.

Some of the advantages that come with high emotional intelligence are the ability to interact freely with others, understand them and hence be able to help them where necessary. It also helps you to accept things the way they come; no matter how hard the challenge might present itself, with high emotional intelligence you will be able to deal with it calmly.

In short, high emotional intelligence you will be good at managing your relationship with others, self management and awareness will be easy for you and hence you will have proper control of your life and emotions.

Day 3:  Concentrate on Knowing Yourself

If you can achieve knowing who you are, then it becomes easier for you to know others; don’t let others be the ones who know you more than you know yourself. Once you will know who you are, you will find it easier to understand others, know them and understand their feelings.

Therefore dealing with them will become easier as you will perfectly know their strengths, weaknesses and hopes. Understanding who you are will requires time and a lot of patience; in fact this is something that you will continue learning throughout your lifetime. Another important thing that can help you understand yourself better is by understanding and being aware of your surrounding environment.

Day 4: Improve Your Communication Skills

Good communication skills help you understand others’ messages to you and also gives you the ability to send understandable messages. This can only be achieved if you have a high emotional intelligence.

Such good communication skills should be inclusive of non verbal communication which entails body language. To improve your emotional intelligence, you need to understand others, their comfort when communicating with you and understand their preferences.

In the process of improving your emotional intelligence, it is also good that you learn how to differentiate the sincerity and fakeness in others’ non verbal actions. This you can only achieve by learning to do those things yourself.

Day 5: Be Analytical

Before you can make conclusions on various things, it is good that you first analyze the cause of the event. If for instance if somebody carried out or said something that is wrong, it is good to first understand the reasons that led to them doing it that way.

This way you will not make wrong judgments based on vague assumptions. If you can apply this in all your doings, then you will have achieved a great step in improving your emotional intelligence.

Day 6: Be Goal Oriented

In order to improve your emotional intelligence, you need to be more focused and optimistic about achieving your goals. This therefore will require that whatever goal you have set, you be ready to take all the necessary measures that can help you achieve that goal. Map the goals you want to achieve by writing them down. This makes you have a clear focus of what you want and the things you need to do in order to achieve these things.

Also before making any decisions about the measure you will take in accomplishing your goals, be sure to take in account all the possibilities and concentrate more on the positive than the negatives.

Day 7: Understand Your Emotions

In order to improve your emotional intelligence, it is good that you understand your emotions as well as how you react to different situations. You can easily achieve understanding your emotions by seeking help from those who know you better.

For instance you can seek opinions of your workmates and others whom you spend lots of time with. Be sure to only seek help from those you are sure will be frank with you and are not in any position going to lie in order to either make you happy or suite themselves.

Day 8: Improve Your Listening Skills

If you were used to assuming people even without even listening to their arguments or point, then it is the high time you improved on your listening skills. This is a big step if at all you want to succeed in improving your emotional intelligence.

While someone is speaking to you, it is good that you set your mind to focus on what is being said. This will help you give a good response instead of when you would have been rehearsing on the response instead of listening.

Day 9: Run Over That You Were Told and Ask for Clarity Where You Didn’t Understand

Remember emotional intelligence is the ability not only to understand yourself and your emotions but also the ability to understand others and their inner feelings. In order to understand them, you need to understand what they tell and you can only achieve this by fully digesting their words. In case there are points that you did not understand, don’t hesitate to ask for clarification. If you can understand them, then that is one great step towards emotional intelligence that you will have achieved.

Day 10: Be Social With Others

In order to understand others, you need to be closer with them socially. Do not be self absorbed to an extent that you even don’t have time to understand what is happening around you. Have a good heart that understands and shows empathy to others. This will give you a chance to understand them, their feelings and reaction to different things. This helps improve your emotional intelligence.

Day 11: Be Open Minded

This will help in improving your emotional intelligence as by opening your mind on different issues, you will gain new ideas. Remember that this world is vast and therefore full of possibilities. If you can achieve understanding many possibilities on different issues, then you will no doubt have increased you emotional intelligence. You will be ready to accommodate many results and wipe the idea that your initial reality is not accurate as there might be many other better solutions to a certain problem.

Day 12: Be Optimistic

No matter how much unfair life might present itself to you, always be optimistic. This way you will be able to spend a better and happy life. Do not take the negative things about life so seriously; instead concentrate more on the good things. You can achieve this by recognizing errors and accepting them so that in future you won’t repeat the same errors.

Recognize the good things about others, appreciate yourself just the way you are. This way, you will have fully accepted life the way it has presented itself to you and will therefore live a happy life.

Day 13: Have a Sense of Humor

Taking things lightly does not make them light but it gives you the courage to face them the way they are. Do not be too hard on yourself no matter how tough challenges might be. If you can learn how to be wearing a smile every time, then you will have increased energy to face the difficulties in your life. By being humorous in the daily occurring events, you are able to even save your time. This is because there will no time wasted grooving over the bad things that might have happened.

Day 14: Know Your Strengths and Weaknesses

In order to improve your emotional intelligence, you need to understand what your strengths are and what your weaknesses are. This way, you will concentrate more on improving your weaknesses and try to make them better.

There is of course something that you can do to help you do better in the things you do not perform well. Although nobody is 100% perfect, you can overcome your weakness to become nearly to perfect.

Day 15: Understand the Reason as to Why You Do or Like Some Things Over Others

This helps you understand your course better. This way you will be able to stand firm in your beliefs and be convincing enough if faced by a situation where you will be required to explain yourself and your beliefs. It will also be hard for others to challenge you since you will have confidence in making them understand why you believe in what you do.

Day 16: Be Flexible to Change and Ready to Learn

Let your curiosity allow you to discover and learn new things. This will help you achieve self improvement and hence achieve improved emotional intelligence. This will make you lead an easier and successful life as you will have vast knowledge of many things happening around you. You will therefore have no hard time adapting to wherever place you go.

Day 17: Know Your Reaction at Others

People are different and therefore require a lot of understanding in order to live peacefully with them. Do not expect others to understand you as they might not always do. Instead train yourself to understand them always.

There are those that you get a long and others that you barely do, for this case it is good that you try to at times place yourself in the position of those you do not understand. Understand them before you can judge them. If you feel that no matter how you try you cannot, then it is advisable that you avoid constant crossing their lines. Remember it is good to prevent than to cure.

Day 18: Be Responsible of Your Own Actions

In order to improve your emotional intelligence, you need to be responsible of all the things you do. Do not blame others for any mistakes that might occur in your life. In case you wronged somebody, do not avoid them; instead face them and ask for forgiveness.

In case you are dealing with the type that is never easy to be convinced even when they are fully responsible, just take the blame to avoid any argument.

Day 19: Take Care of Your Actions

Let whatever you do not be another person’s source of stress. If at all you feel that if you do or say something another person will be affected, at any cost avoid going that far. Put yourself in their position and imagine how you would have reacted if it was done to you. By taking care of your actions, you will live in harmony with others, a big step in increasing your emotional intelligence.

Day 20: Be Quick to Resolve Conflicts

It is good to understand that people are different and there is no way you can possibly agree on practically everything. Understanding that will help you easily resolve conflicts that may arise. This will help you live in peace with others and this in doubt is one achievement of an improved emotional intelligence.

Day 21: Learn How to Forgive

Living with other people, even those you dearly love, you are guaranteed that in one way or another they will hurt you. It is healthier to avoid keeping grudges and overcome any urge to seek revenge. This can only be achieved through forgiveness.

Let it stick to your mind that emotional intelligence is about how you relate with others as well as having knowledge about your actions. Improving it helps you prosper in life by making it easy to achieve your goals and improve your social life. It is therefore good that you do your best in improving your emotional intelligence.