SQ is not a 'top of the class' kind of intelligence. What we can detect are signs and symptoms of an SQ life in becoming. In this everyone can win. I am often asked whether this or that person is SQ and sometimes whether I am SQ. but it is better to ask what are the SQ processes we can recognize.
The following seven levels of the evolving SQ self can be recognized as trends of becoming. It is only possible to give a few examples at each of the seven levels. The point is to show how allpervading SQ is and how all SQ intelligence contributes to the line of human evolution from adolescence to adulthood. It serves a purpose that is greater than merely having some intelligence. SQ does not regard one level as lesser than another but all as working toward a unified and integrating purpose.
Awareness makers
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Musicians, poets, writers, artists (Shakespeare, Mozart, Beethoven, and countless others) who have made us aware through their arts of our deeper feelings that have significance in the phases of intelligent life.
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Sportspeople who remind us of the grace and beauty of the human body and how it is more than a mere machine (athletes, skiers, gymnasts…), who have chosen to express their urge to do in the form of excellence, and who celebrate the uniqueness of the human effort and struggle.
Meaning bringers
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Moral individuals who have clarified the consequences of actions that are ill thought out, scientists who have sought to clarify what is ethical or not to explore and to view their work within a larger context than social pressure or ego gain.
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Generals and individual soldiers who have sought not to react under pressure and foolishness, whose uncertainty was constructive uncertainty.
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Teachers who have overcome their inhibitions to be of good service to others, and nurses and doctors who have drawn strength from wanting the best for others.
Evaluators
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People who in facing challenging issues, whether large or small, have looked afresh to avoid assumptions and therefore realized that there was more to find, more to do, and more to explore.
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Those who challenged their own and their culture's assumptions and discovered new cures, new solutions to old problems, new ways to teach children to improve relationships and to overcome life's challenges from an elevated level of self.
Centerers
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Individuals whose life story centers us. Those who have endured extreme crisis and yet have continued to find value in life.
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People such as Viktor Frankl who, having lived through the horror of Auschwitz, continued to forgive and demonstrate compassion, and the countless others like him all over the world who have not allowed terrible experiences to be an excuse not to try afresh.
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All who have lost friends or loved ones and continued to resist bitterness and blame and sought to overcome their emotions to find new meaning.
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Those who have been centered enough to forgive ignorance and choose to educate and bring light-people such as Kofi Annan, Abraham Lincoln, and Nelson Mandela. Those who have died with dignity and been able to face themselves with self-value.
Visionaries
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Those who see that in daily events there is always more to be done and to win. The cleaner who gets the school ready because she wants the children to have the best opportunity to grow; the father or mother who perceives the natural inner light in their children and seeks every opportunity to see that light released.
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The business leader who refuses to be governed by petty advantage taking and the cynicism that suggests nothing can be done and who will work for a higher good.
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Storytellers who reveal the true nature of the human character, those who try to heal the mind and release others rather than always trying to exercise their remedies on others.
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Those who take up a profession with extraordinary devotion because they want to see something worthwhile happen, not from personal advantage or fame.
Projectors
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Those who try to bring new intelligence to each and every situation, be it through a joke, a look, a refusal to criticize and suppress, who give of themselves freely, not to win favor or position but because they want and believe that only good can come from good whether they are associated with it or not.
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Those great minds that can hold a picture of a future and live with the adversity and unpopularity that the exercise of it brings.
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Those whose presence brings relief from suffering, the
Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa, Florence Nightingale-and the person on the street who champions the same line of intelligent growth.
Missionaries
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Those who integrate a universal issue with a personal cause: Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, Albert Schweitzer, and countless others who are part of a team in which they have played the mission part.
Remember that these are all parts of the greater human team- they work in their own way toward one integrated mission. We are intelligent because of the part we play in something greater than ourselves. Perhaps you and I in our small but significant way can add our weight to the mission of these times as it finds a new level-whatever our style and territory of expression.
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