Why Bother With Emotional Intelligence?

Building on the foundation provided by the previous post, I would like to consider some implications which follow from developing strong communicative connections between the feeling and thinking parts of the brain. I concluded the previous post by stating that “a person may continue developing emotional intelligence until they are almost rationally unaffected by the presence of emotion in their life.” But why exactly should a person do this? How could such a thing benefit them? What impact would it have on their life?

If you have ever made an “emotional decision” or “gone off half cocked,” as the saying goes, and moreover have reflected on such things, you know that acting on the basis of pure emotion is rarely a good idea. Indeed, hindsight often reveals such emotional impulses to be, in the very least, less than beneficial. Assuming, of course, we did in fact act on them. Ask yourself: “Have I ever made an emotional decision and came to regret it?” Most of us, if we are honest, will admit to ourselves that we have. And that decision-making on the basis of pure emotion can be, and often is, hazardous and problematic, and can potentially have implications that reach far into the future and influence our lives for years to come.

The reason we should develop emotional intelligence and thereby strengthen the communicative paths between the feeling and thinking parts of our brain, is so we can minimize our emotion-based decisions and thereby minimize our “emogenic” problems. (The word “emogenic,” by the way, isn't a proper word. I coined it to better describe problems which originate from emotion-based-decision-making.) If we are able to think rationally about things while we experience strong emotions, we are far less likely to act on the basis of sheer emotional impulse. And if we are less likely to act on sheer emotional impulse, we place ourselves in a position to make better decisions and thus reap better results. In short, we should develop emotional intelligence because it will help us make better decisions and thereby live a better life.