Your IQ Is Only 20% of Your Success. The Rest Is Emotional. How Do You Feel About That? Part #2

Why It Can Matter More Than IQ

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Self-­Motivation: Using Emotion to Meet Your Goals

Positive motivation is crucial to achievement. The greatest athletes, musicians and chess masters are distinguished by their ability to stick with arduous practice, year after year, beginning early in life.

Emotions determine how people get on in life because they can enhance or limit the capacity to use innate abilities. The ability to restrain emotions and delay impulses, to defer gratification, is a critical life skill and the key to a host of endeavors, from dieting to getting a college degree.

Anxiety undermines intellect, but a positive mood enhances thinking. Those who are adept at harnessing their emotions can even use their anxiety for motivation. Experts describe the relationship between anxiety and performance as an upside­ down U. Too little anxiety means no motivation and poor performance. Too much anxiety impairs intellect. Peak performance comes in the middle. A mildly elated state called hypomania is ideal for writers and other creative people.

The emotional mind is far quicker than the rational mind, springing into action…