ARE YOU EXHIBITING THESE 10 SIGNS OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE?

1. Self-awareness - You understand your own emotions, recognize your strengths and weaknesses, and have self-confidence. Self-aware individuals are comfortable with who they are and are introspective about their emotions and behaviors. They recognize how their feelings impact themselves and others. 

Self-awareness allows you to see how outside events trigger certain thoughts and emotions within you. It gives you the ability to pause and reflect before reacting to understand why you feel the way you do and how your response might affect a situation. Demonstrating self-awareness shows that you have taken the time to understand your own psychology and are able to thoughtfully consider yourself and how your behaviors align with your principles.

ARE YOU EXHIBITING THESE 10 SIGNS OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE?

2. Self-regulation - You are able to control your emotions and impulses during times of stress and remain calm and professional under pressure. Self-regulation is about responding to difficult events mindfully rather than reflexively. Individuals with high self-regulation think before they act and stay in control of their behavior even when provoked. 

Self-regulation allows you to channel negative or intensely positive emotions into healthy outlets. It demonstrates restraint over your actions, body language, and tone of voice. Self-regulated individuals manage their stress well and do not allow emotions to cloud their judgment or escalate a situation. They consider how to optimize outcomes rather than react instinctively. Self-regulation is critical for emotional intelligence because it allows thoughtful versus reactive responses.

3. Motivation - You are driven to achieve goals, curious about new opportunities, and committed to continual development of your skills. Motivation involves satisfying your basic needs and desires to stay productive and strive for success and progress both personally and professionally.

Intrinsically motivated individuals find fulfillment and enjoyment through effort and see challenges as opportunities rather than obstacles. They look for opportunities for growth, enjoy mastering new skills, and are interested in opportunities to expand their contribution. Signs of motivation include being passionate about your work, pushing yourself outside your comfort zone, thriving under pressure, and finding proactive solutions during setbacks. Having strong internal motivation is vital for persevering through difficult periods and reaching your highest potential. 

4. Empathy - You understand other peoples' perspectives, experiences, and emotions. Empathetic individuals tune into how others are feeling by listening actively and putting themselves "in someone else's shoes." They thoughtfully consider differing viewpoints rather than dismiss them. Empathy allows respect for people from diverse backgrounds with non-conforming views.

Being empathetic requires genuine care, compassion, and interest in others. It means being sensitive to unspoken feelings and able to provide support without judgment. Signs of empathy include taking real notice of how your words and actions affect others, making an effort to understand different experiences, and regularly placing priority on mutual understanding versus being right. Empathy creates stronger relationships through active listening and appreciation of people's humanity regardless of superficial differences.

5. Social Skills - You are adept at communicating, managing relationships, and inspiring others. Strong social skills mean putting people at ease through kindness, humor, and active interest in them as individuals. Effective social interactions require reading nonverbal signals accurately while also controlling one's own body language and tone. 

People with social skills form bonds easily, resolve conflicts respectfully, and make others feel heard and valued through thoughtful feedback and support. They can juggle multiple relationships simultaneously and bring people together successfully through inclusive and motivating team leadership. Signs of social intelligence involve giving full attention to whomever you're interacting with, making others feel included, demonstrating care for people's well-being, and finding areas for collaboration versus competition. Social skills are necessary to unite groups, strengthen networks, and promote cooperation.

6. Problem Solving - You are able to effectively define problems, analyze them from multiple angles, and craft thoughtful solutions. At the core of problem solving is recognizing that most dilemmas have more than one right answer and using empathetic, creative thinking to overcome issues. 

Emotionally intelligent problem solvers examine all perspectives without judgment, seek input from others, and look for win-win resolutions instead of making assumptions. They focus on the issue, not persons, to have productive discussions even during stressful times. Signs someone is a good problem solver include keeping an open mind, thinking outside the box, adapting a flexible mindset as new factors emerge, and ability to break large problems down into manageable pieces for systematic review. Emotional intelligence improves all stages of proactive, team-based problem solving.

7. Reality Testing - You are grounded, think objectively, and base actions and decisions on facts rather than assumptions or bias. Reality testing means continually checking thoughts and judgments against objective data and input from others before deciding a course of action. 

Emotionally intelligent reality testing does not allow preconceptions or naïve optimism to override logic. It involves being willing and able to accept constructive criticism from diverse points of view instead of immediately becoming defensive. Signs of good reality testing are double-checking details methodically, exposing ideas to dissenting perspectives, and adjusting approaches as new information is revealed. The ability to contemplate multiple perspectives objectively helps separate facts from emotions for well-reasoned analysis and execution. 

8. Impulse Control - You remain calm, channel your energy, and think before acting even when tempted to show frustration or anger. Impulse control is a key element of self-regulation that allows resisting primal urges and short term temptations in exchange for longer term rewards. 

Individuals with good impulse control can halt reactive behavior to engage in conscious problem solving. Signs include pausing before reacting, carefully considering rewards and risks before making permanent decisions, and avoiding lashing out when provoked or stressed. Impulse control gives space to generate measured responses aligned with core priorities and principles rather than fleeting instincts. It stops emotional reactions from sabotaging important relationships and long term objectives.

9. Flexibility - You are resilient, adapt well to change, and consider multiple options or adjust paths as needed. Change happens continuously, so flexibility lets you roll with life's uncertainties and surprises through open-mindedness and willingness to re-evaluate decisions. 

Flexible people do not get rigidly stuck on one approach or perspective. They realize plans may require tweaking as new angles come to light. Signs include considering that there may always be more than one solution, changing tactics without stubborn resistance as constraints evolve, and pursuing long-term viability over short-term dogma. Flexibility stems from confidence rather than fragility - it helps optimize outcomes through dynamic collaboration rather than reactionary stances as change is inevitable.

10. Optimism - You remain hopeful and motivated despite setbacks through your ability to rebound from failures and are upbeat even in tough times. Optimism involves believing that effort can overcome hardships and that undesirable present conditions are only temporary unless action is taken. 

The optimistic mindset makes failures stepping stones, not dead ends. Signs of optimism are keeping life experience in perspective, counting multiple small wins daily, and maintaining belief that solutions exist where others see only problems. Emotionally intelligent individuals use temporary obstacles as motivation for innovation rather than justification for giving up. Optimism sustains passion and is critical for perseverance, service to others, and resilience through uncertainty.

These 10 qualities of self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, social skills, problem-solving, reality-testing, impulse control, flexibility, and optimism embody the strongest characteristics of emotional intelligence. Cultivating high emotional intelligence takes ongoing reflection, insight, and commitment to personal and relationship growth. Its mastery allows tapping the highest performance and finding deep purpose, connections, and life satisfaction that come through understanding both ourselves and others at a profoundly human level.