A season of the “most.”
“It’s the most wonderful time of the year!”
“It’s the hap, happiest season of all!”
My daughter and I were talking about these phrases and agreed that “wonderful” and “happiest” are sometimes a stretch, yet we both agreed it is the MOST time of the year.
- The most food
- The most spending
- The most time with others
- The most push to finish up year-end projects
And all of this “most” is often wonderful, and can lead to a fair amount of stress and some people either lashing out or withdrawing.
Flex your Emotional Intelligence
With the help of our personality assessments, the MPO Personality and MPO Communication Reports, and our EQ training you are likely in a better position to flex your emotional intelligence and leverage your traits to thrive this season. You have:
- Knowledge of your strengths and your weaknesses
- Understanding of when your personality traits are helping a situation and when they may make the situation more stressful
- Awareness of when to lean into your strengths, and when to lean out and assess how you should best respond and not react to a situation
This self-awareness is a key component of emotional intelligence. Once you are aware, the next step is to apply what you know so you can be at your best and communicate more effectively with others. Please take a few minutes over the holidays to reflect and refresh on what you “need.” This will help you feel centered. Next, build time into your schedule to make sure you get what you need.
What do you need?
Considering what you’ve learned about yourself, do you “need”:
- More time alone or more time with others, or just more of a balance of each?
- To get out of the details or dig deep into the details and check all the things off your list?
- More time to plan the work then methodically work the plan, or just work with a sense of urgency to have quick wins?
- To guard yourself from the emotions in the room by being aware of when you are taking on someone else’s emotions and making them your own?
- To seek to understand why someone is struggling or angry, and be mindful to not just jump right in to fix it?
Whatever it is you need, please remember to put on your oxygen mask first so you have the time, patience and energy to be your best around others. This is leveraging emotional intelligence!
It is only after you have your needs met that you can focus outward and help others enjoy the season!
Wishing you a holiday full of of joy,
Patti
