Well, you know how fairytale goes … Little Red Riding Hood heads out into woods to see her grandmother. First she fails to notice wolf when he approaches her in woods, but goes gaily on her way.

Then, when she arrives at her Grandmother’s house things look suspicious and she sticks around to comment – “Grandmother, what big eyes you have!” ending with familiar line “Grandmother, what a big mouth you have!” followed by “The better to eat you with my dear.”

Fairytales were designed to teach us life lessons. The lesson in this fairytale is one of key points in emotional intelligence – learning to pay attention to your emotions, your instincts.

Emotional intelligence means understanding and managing your own emotions and those of others. Our emotions predate our ability to “think” as human beings, and are strong cues to us for one reason: survival.

Part of emotional intelligence is learning to hear how your emotions and your intuition talk to you, to pay attention to message, trust it and act accordingly.

When I ask people in workshops how they know when it’s intuition, they say “because I’m absolutely sure.” Intuition is an EQ competency that can be developed and it can help you make better decisions, use better judgment, and maybe even save your life.

“How come you’re catching all fish?” Elmer asked.

“It’s ‘cause I have to, Mr. Elmer,” he replied.

One man was fishing for fun; other man was fishing because that would be all his family would be eating that night.

INTENTIONALITY

Intentionality is one of higher-level emotional intelligence competencies. It means saying what you mean and meaning what you say. It means intending to do something and then staying focused until you’ve done it.