"If your emotional abilities aren't in hand, if you don't have self-awareness, if you are not able to manage your distressing emotions,
if you can't have empathy and have effective relationships,
then no matter how smart you are, you are not going to get very far."
-- Daniel Goleman
from Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More than IQ
A GREAT PLACE TO START -- to be impeccable with our words, to remember it's not about us (me, you, them), we know what happens when we assume..., and we strive to always be doing our best.
THE FOUR AGREEMENTS, by Don Miguel Ruiz, may be familiar to many of us. Maybe not. If we think these qualities are a basis for our mastery, let's check in with how we're doing? Each day we have the opportunity to take a quick and honest inventory of how we choose to speak, when our sensitivity is getting in the way, when we make judgments carelessly, or/and seizing each and every moment to live into our own dreams and potential. Put this way, everyday we have ordinary and constant opportunities to maintain active spiritual practice.