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Social Sci LibreTexts

2: Achieve Personal Success

  • Page ID
    15490
    • Anonymous
    • LibreTexts
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    It is important to distinguish between personal and professional success, because personal success does not always mean professional success and the other way around. In addition, personal and professional success means different things to different people. For example, having a nice car, a beautiful home, and a fancy job title could be considered professional success. On the other hand, personal success may include the ability to travel, interpersonal relationships, friendships, and other factors that have little to do with professional success. We know there is much crossover between skills that can help us achieve both professional and personal success or happiness. Emotional intelligence is one of those skills, which we will discuss in greater detail throughout this chapter.

    • 2.1: Prelude to Achieving Personal Success
      Desiree does not earn large sums of money and does not have a fancy job title. She has never been promoted and has worked as an administrative assistant for twelve years for more or less the same salary. However, she does not have the goal of being promoted and prefers to leave the office at 5 pm and not have to think about work beyond that. She has a rich life full of friends and travel. One would not argue that Desiree has achieved success and happiness personally.
    • 2.2: Emotional Intelligence
      Emotional intelligence (EQ) refers to a form of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and actions. This is different from intelligence quotient (IQ) in that IQ measures intelligence based on a score derived from intelligence tests. The other main difference between the two is that IQ is stable over a lifetime, while EQ can grow and develop over time.
    • 2.3: Goal Setting
      As we discussed, our emotional intelligence is the cornerstone for career success. Part of self-management is knowing ourselves and being able to set goals based on understanding our own needs and wants. Many people end up adrift in life, with no real goal or purpose, which can show lack of self-management.  Research done by Locke et al. in the late 1960s shows a direct connection between goal setting and high achievement.
    • 2.4: Continuous Learning
      Continuous learning involves the process of constantly trying to update skills and learn new ones. involves the process of constantly trying to update skills and learn new ones. This shows high emotional intelligence in the area of self-awareness and self-management. Having self-awareness, or knowing our strengths and weaknesses, is the first step in improving our chances for career and personal success.
    • 2.S: Achieve Personal Success (Summary)


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