Humility Is the New Smart

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Managing Self: Thinking and Emotions

Managing Self—our emotions and thinking—aids us in engaging in the higher-level thinking and behavior required by SMA Skills. It’s necessary to remain open-minded and be willing to test our beliefs and modify our points of view if presented with better data. It’s also how we’re able to overcome our fear of mistakes in order to take ownership of them and learn from them, and helps us more effectively relate to and collaborate with others.

Managing Self comes from the science of “self-regulation” and “self-control,” which are broad psychological concepts that mean to monitor and manage one’s emotions, thoughts, and behaviors. We all, of course, use self-regulation and emotional intelligence every day—when ...