Blog | Personal Finance

The Importance of Emotional Intelligence

Emotional IQ vs. Education IQ

When we hear “IQ” we immediately think about educational intelligence. But what if I told you that your emotions have an IQ level. Would you believe me?

Not too long ago I stumbled across this quote:

“Sometimes our habitual thinking takes over and we end up complaining or being upset about things that don’t actually matter to us. Break the habit. Before you get worked up about something, ask yourself, do I really value this enough to exhaust myself emotionally over it? Ask yourself if it is worth it to have it play on a mental loop in your head. Ask yourself if it is worth your energy or worth your words. You are in charge of how much space a thought takes up in your life. Take the time to carefully consider what you let be a part of your being and your spirit” – Cleo Wade.

This is such a powerful illustration of dissecting and understanding how your emotions affect your everyday decisions. We are all human, that means we all experience happiness, fear, sadness, hate, joy, anger, disappointment, excitement and more. But how we control these emotions is what sets us apart and what either aids or diminishes our success.

I can’t tell you how often I hear people say they are scared to invest their money. They fear that they are going to lose everything. And that emotion of being afraid stops them from progressing and stops them from the potential of being financially independent. This is an example of someone who does not have a strong emotional IQ. They can’t separate their emotion from the decision, and it stops them in their tracks.

That tells me that our emotional IQ is more impactful than our academic IQ. Education doesn’t teach you how to take risks and how to take a chance on life. It does not prepare you how to take financial risks, or how to achieve financial freedom. And let me tell you, financial freedom will only come when you finally accept that mistakes are learning curves and that risk can be managed.

We all know, as Rich Dad Advisors, the saying: when emotions are high, intelligence is low. One scenario that I think of every time I hear this is road rage. We hear about it on the news: “civilian is shot in deadly road rage incident”, or “two suspects have been arrested for a road rage hit and run”. In incidents such as these, emotions have overruled common sense and logic.

I think that all of us can think back and remember a time when our emotions hijacked our common sense.

When it comes to money, our emotions often get the best of us. We know what we should do, but instead we do what we feel like safe or secure because of fear.

The only way to break this vicious cycle is to have a conversation with yourself. Make sure to ask: do I really value this enough to exhaust myself emotionally over it? Is it worth losing my common sense over this emotion?

We’ve all, at some point, uttered the words, “I’m only human.” But if you can keep your emotions in check and go for what you know to be logical, you have a good chance of being successful. It's a process of separating your emotions from logic.

If you find that you’re having a hard time separating your emotions from logic, ask for help. It's always helpful to have someone to talk to that can give you objective advice—especially when it's advice you may not want to hear. Josh and I make sure to be there for one another, and if we both can’t be objective – then we seek outside sources to help.

We’re all human but we’re all capable.