Intrapersonal Skills

The first category, intrapersonal skills, relates to how well you know and like yourself as well as how effectively you can do the things you need to do to stay happy. This category is made up of five specific competencies:

Is This You?

Are you an older student, maybe in your thirties or forties, who is back in college? As an adult, you probably have a great deal of life experience in dealing with tough times. How are you using your skills at standing up for yourself and negotiating with others as you face the challenges of college? You might want to give some advice to younger students who seem to be struggling with the day-to-day interactions that are part of college life.

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  1. Emotional self-awareness. Knowing how and why you feel the way you do.
  2. Assertiveness. Standing up for yourself when you need to without being too aggressive.
  3. Independence. Making important decisions on your own without having to get everyone’s opinion.
  4. Self-regard. Liking yourself despite your flaws (and we all have them).
  5. Self-actualization. Being satisfied and comfortable with what you have achieved in school, work, and your personal life.

Understanding yourself and why you think and act as you do is the glue that holds all the EI competencies together. Knowledge of self is strongly connected to respect for others and their way of life. If you don’t understand yourself and why you do the things you do, it can be difficult for you to understand others. What’s more, if you don’t like yourself, you can hardly expect others to like you.