HOW TO TAP INTO YOUR PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE

The speed of growth is unsettling everything – from the clumsy systems that once ran the world, to our core beliefs. The only way to stay ahead while navigating this exhilarating and disruptive revolution is to produce sweepingly innovative solutions. This requires us to unlearn and rethink some of our mental and emotional habits that could be keeping us stuck in the old ways of showing up and doing things. You need to tap into your personal intelligence. 

What is Innovation?

Innovation is inspiration plus collaboration. Productive cooperation produces the right result when the intensity of the dialogue stirs all parties to stretch their thinking and their best work. This kind of vigorous dialogue requires a healthy level of Personal Intelligence, to free us from the emotional baggage and self-conditioning that interfere with our ability to think clearly and communicate well. Questions you need to ask yourself are:

Are you up for this? 

What are you prepared to let go of? 

What are you holding onto that is restricting your progress?

In her book ‘Personal Intelligence’, Steph Vermeulen discusses the notion that human beings are the most complex objects in the universe. The first step in this process is to be able to change our minds about who we are and to fully appreciate our purpose in the world. Our brains are so powerful that by changing our minds, we have the power fundamentally to change who we are and how we show up every day. Our personalities are an adaptation to our life experiences. They are made up of memes, which are units of social conditioning. These include positive and negative sensitivities. Functional relationships in our lives are not about being ‘nice’ but about understanding what reaction we are getting and what in ourselves needs to be healed. (Vermeulen,2015)

Our beliefs and Unconscious Biases

We all believe that ‘The way I think is the right way.’ But what beliefs are no longer serving you? Are you aware of your unconscious biases – even the choices you make about the sources of information you trust are an indication of these unconscious biases, as what you choose to believe will be influenced by the source of the information? The things we believe are facts may not be facts at all.

Why being right is a waste of time and creates opposition

Our emotions run facts between our thinking brains and our bodies. Our physical bodies are the storehouse of all our life memories. Exhilaration happens when there are no blockages between our thoughts, emotions and physical experience. Under pressure we may ignore the warning lights of our emotions. Anger is the result of not getting our own way. How we go about getting what we want makes all the difference. Being able to negotiate and co-create rather than beating others with our opinions, our perceptions and our need to be right is far more powerful than argument, which only entrenches opposition. The need to be right in arguments tends to be a waste of time. Is it more important to be right or to be happy? How do we become intentional about this journey?

If these thoughts strike a chord with you and you would like to take the conversation to another level please contact Joanna at joanna@distinctionscoaching.com where you can discuss all types of coaching including: Executive Coaching, CEO Coaching, Integral Coaching, Team Coaching, Career Coaching and The Maintenance Coaching Programme. 

Reference: Personal Intelligence by Steph Vermeulen (2015)