INSIGHTS FOR PARENTS
By GARY ZITTERGRUEN, Benton Community Superintendent

Develop emotional vitality

Some modern writers and business authorities have their own theories about what will make a person successful. One says it takes 10,000 hours of practice. Another says a person can’t be successful unless his or her parents provided outstanding opportunities to learn.

These ideas have merit, but they don’t touch on one quality that would have to be present for success at almost any job.

Harvard professors call it “emotional vitality.” It means having mental and physical energy plus positive wellbeing and the ability to manage emotions.

To put it more simply, being able to look at the glass as half full gives people energy that keeps them engaged with the world and engaged in their work.

Emotional energy makes them feel good more often than not. Those who have it don’t think that life is hard all the time. And when bad things happen, they can say the trouble is not going to last forever and good things will happen again.

Daniel Goleman’s book, Emotional Intelligence, brought legitimacy to the concept that emotional content is at the core of every business deal, no matter how rational the players believe they are being.

Business consultant Fred Kiel, writing in Business Week, tells of talking with a hot dog server at a Costco lunch counter. The server said he had had several jobs there since leaving his job as a high school teacher.

Costco is known for treating its people well, but this man was also an excellent example of emotional vitality and forward thinking.

He said he was paid well. Plus, he knew that sooner or later he would be given a better job – one with more responsibility – and that was exciting to him. He was engaged, positive, and going somewhere.