Unflappable, Garrett shrugged and replied, “Try something else.”

9. High IQ, High EQ: Captain of RCI’s Rhapsody of Seas

Many seniors travel on cruises and when their poor eyesight and bad hips collide with a rocking ship, spilled beverages, and tendering, results are predictable despite all caution. Last cruise I spoke on, I watched captain come down from bridge to visit with a couple sitting poolside. He asked man how he was doing after his fall in dining room, looked at his bruises, ordered drinks delivered, sat and visited.

I know your insurance company would tell you not to do this.

I worked in a law firm at one time and I heard it repeatedly, “If he had just apologized … If she’d even said she was sorry.”

I rear-ended someone 2 years ago. Just flat out didn’t hit brakes in time. The woman told me she had just recovered from a back injury and was scared. SHE was scared? I was PETRIFIED. I asked her to follow me to a parking lot. I spent 30 minutes with her expressing my concern, calming her, offering to drive her home, make phone calls, and saying how sorry I was to have added to her stress.

Believe it or not, I never heard from her again.

10. Low IQ, High EQ: Jen, sales.

Jen never finished college. Her strengths on StrengthsFinder™ are Positivity, WOO (Winning Others Over), Empathy, Communicator, Activator. This is not profile of an intellectual. She makes 6 figures.

11.Unk. IQ, High EQ: Michael Jackson

A tricky one, but, EQ involves creativity, flexibility, and intuition (rather than purely cognitive rules and formulas) and few have produced more hit singles than he. Consider his responses to an interview:

S: “How do you write your songs?”

Michael: ”If I sit there and say I’m going to write a best-seller, nothing is going to happen…. The way I wrote Billy Jean…I was in car and I thought I’d like to make a song with a really cool base line, and I let it go. I just let go. A few days later, beats just started playing in my head….The mistake many musicians make is that they get in way of music. Get out of way. Let song write itself.”

S: “But if you don’t write it, where does it come from?”

Michael just shrugged, paused, and said, “Above.”

12. Unk. IQ, High EQ: Pearl Bailey

”There are two kinds of talents, man-made talent and God-given talent. With man-made talent you have to work very hard. With God-given talent, all you have to do is touch it up once in a while.”

Emotional intelligence is where emotions and thinking interface. Winners have high EQs and it can be learned. Why not start today!

In feng shui terms, clutter is both a symptom and a cause of stuck energy. Opening dictionary we see that “clutter” derives from Old English word “clott”, which means: “to cause to become blocked or obscured.” Like a blood clot blocking circulation in our veins, clutter prevents energy from circulating through our homes and our lives.

As a feng shui consultant, I have worked with many clients who complain of feeling creatively or professionally blocked, or who bemoan lack of a sense of purpose or direction in life. What I usually find in their homes are lots of things that don’t reflect their personality or future aspirations. These people are surrounded by objects that have been allowed to wander in unchecked at door or that linger on shelf long after relevant stage of life is past.

On an energetic level, all this stuff is preventing a clear vision of self. Anything that is neglected, unwanted, or unappealing to you will drag your energy down every time you look at it. Even a beautiful object of great value does nothing for you or your home if you don’t like it. This is why we include “anything that you do not love” in a holistic definition of clutter.

Everything that surrounds you should be working for you in some way. If things in your space are not supporting you and contributing to positive quality of your life, it is time to do something about it!

The defeat, fatigue, and depression that you feel when you think about your clutter will start to evaporate as soon as you put yourself in action. The hard part is getting started, but once you do magic will begin.

Clutter-clearing creates space for us to discover our true path in life and to define who we want to become. With this new vision we can consciously choose to surround ourselves with objects and imagery that reflect and support our authentic concept of self.

© 2003 Stephanie Roberts

[exerpted from “Clutter-Free Forever!”, Lotus Pond Press, 2003]

Stephanie Roberts is the author of “Fast Feng Shui: 9 Simple Principles for Transforming Your Life by Energizing Your Home”, a #1 most popular feng shui book at Amazon.com. Her new “Clutter-Free Forever!” e-book and Home Coaching Program are now available at <Back to Page 1