Emotional Intelligence – Daniel Goleman

It’s a brilliant book which proposes that IQ alone doesn’t determine destiny but an alternative major intelligence factor, emotional intelligence, which includes self-awareness, self-control, and empathy play a crucial role in success.

The book has been written in a very simple language with lots of practical examples.

Dr. Goleman says we each have two minds - the emotional and the rational. Ideally, these two minds work together. Our feelings inform the rational mind, and the rational mind refines the input of our emotions. When they team up, both emotional intelligence and intellectual ability are stronger. An emotion is an impulse to act. Impulses to fight, flee, laugh, cry, celebrate, play, or relax have been "hard-wired" into us by evolution. Sudden bursts of anger or fear may have had high survival value for our early ancestors. But these emergency responses don't always work in our high-stress modern world. A key challenge of present-day life, then, is to manage our surges of feeling.

I would definitely recommend everyone to read this book.