Archive for December, 2014

One of the base premises of the YCISL program is that creativity is stifled in youth (Ken Robinson’s posit) and that restoration of creativity is perhaps the largest challenge in pursuing and finding fulfillment in life. I am wondering whether emotional intelligence is in a similar predicament. Like creativity, could it be that people lose significant emotional intelligence by adulthood (assuming there is some base presence in early childhood)? However, the EI loss may be due more to atrophy than fear. The YCISL approach is therefore to develop and share exercises which condition and strengthen both creativity and emotional intelligence.

Where can we observe an absence of EI? The example I will pick on today is the automobile (there are many other places I am sure come to your mind as well).

1. I will start off with what I saw today that led me to write this entry. Smoking a cigarette while driving. In so many ways, this demonstrates low EI. If a smoker tries to use EI, he/she clearly would not be doing it while driving. It negatively affects self and social, and in both the awareness and management dimensions.

2. Then there are those who choose to load/unload on the traffic side of a car. Especially when this involves children, there is a complete lack of personal and social EI.

3. Then there are speeders, tailgaters and red light runners.

4. An EMT favorite are those who choose to groom themselves while driving.

5. A less clear example are drunk/drugged drivers. Does intoxication temporarily impact EI or does low EI lead to likelihood of getting intoxicated?

So let’s try to recognize low EI and make an effort to strengthen it in ourselves. Combine it with knowledge intelligence (KI) and experience the feeling of leadership.