There’s a story going around Chicago area about a student at U. of Chicago last year. At that venerable high-IQ institution, it’s still a graduation requirement that each student pass a swimming test. A student showed up to take test and, 3 hours later, after they’d dragged him out of Lake Michigan and EMS had left, they asked him why he’d shown up to take test when he didn’t know how to swim.

”I read about it,” he said.

2.High IQ, Low EQ: Frank.

Ph.D. in Engineering, designs military defense systems for government, has a net worth in millions, and top security clearance, and is on his 5th wife.

3.Average IQ, High EQ: Dr. Bob

Bob has an IQ of 125, low for a physician. He was told repeatedly he wasn’t med-school material, but his social skills, focus, and determination made his becoming a doctor a reality. And what a gift to profession! He has a marvelous “bedside manner.” He’s grateful he can practice medicine – when was last time you encountered a physician with that attitude??

4.High IQ, High EQ: William Pickering, Rocket Man.

Ph.D., Physics, CalTech. In 1957, when Russia launched Sputnik, Pickering was working for Jet Propulsion Lab. In 2 months, Naval Research Laboratory launched Vanguard, which under glare of international media, blew up on launch pad.

Fortunately, Pickering had been working since Sputnik on their own satellite. ExplorerI was launched less than 4 months after Sputnik.

To bring this off, Pickering worked James van Allen, and Wernher von Braun.

(What's that sound I hear? Egos colliding???)

Imagine pressure and EQ it took to pull this off with government, military and American public breathing down their necks.

Which of these towering, credentialed geniuses got leadership job? (And correct me if I’m wrong, but Einstein was also alive at time.) The one with EQ!

5.High IQ, Low EQ: John, a lawyer.

His girl friend, my client, became increasingly displeased with his “cluelessness” and lack of demonstrative affection. Finally she lost her temper and yelled, “Can’t you just send me some flowers?”

”You don’t understand,” he replied. “I don’t know how to.”

6.Low IQ, Low EQ: Mike Tyson.

7.High IQ, Low EQ: Harry, a lawyer.

A lawyer I worked with. Told his secretary, a single parent with 4 children under age of 6 and no child support, who earned $28,000 a year, when her second-hand car broke down, “Well, if you’d just buy a new Lexus like I have …”

Were his office projects sabotaged? What do you think?

8.High IQ, High EQ: Ray Garrett, Jr., former chairman of SEC.

The man under whom it all shook down after Watergate in 70s. The stock market was at its all-time low.

Feng shui teaches us that our spaces both reflect and affect our physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. When our homes become cluttered and disordered, other aspects of our lives tend to feel gridlocked as well. It’s a chicken-and-egg kind of situation. Not only does a cluttered home reflect a distracted and cluttered mind, it also makes it hard to focus and think clearly. It gets easier and easier to stop making item-by-item decisions that could put you back in control of mess and help you to feel more in control of your life.

Eventually, we give up. The task seems overwhelming, and clutter is so pervasive that we can’t figure out where to begin. We slog through our days thinking “someday when I have time I’ve got to clean this up.” Clutter clearing becomes an abstract goal that awaits a mythical future time when our calendars will be free of obligations, we will awaken one weekend morning well-rested and energized, and mysteriously through some unseen grace we will have acquired focused clarity and enthusiasm that will finally inspire us to dive in and get it done. We wait for moment to be right before we begin, so beginning never happens.

We’re approaching clutter challenge backwards when we think this way. Regaining a sense of clarity and order is more easily achieved by putting our space in order than by trying to order and control our thoughts in a disorganized space.