Emotional Intelligence Pocketbook

PRACTISING POSITIVE THINKING

Positive thinking is not just the feeling you have when good things are happening in your life – when it’s easy to feel optimistic. It is about being able to maintain that feeling of hopefulness and motivation, whatever is happening. – Sue Hadfield

Positive thinking is a key part of emotional intelligence. Why? Because emotional intelligence involves managing emotions and situations in a positive, optimistic, helpful way; recognising the positive intent of emotions.

In contrast, negative thinking involves a negative interpretation of events and emotions. Negative thinking focuses on – and often gets stuck in – the difficult aspects of emotions and situations.

Imagine, for example, that you’d promised a colleague ...