Search Inside Yourself by Chade-Meng Tan [Book Summary – Review]


Many of us are trying to take good training, we think this is the only road to have a good salary. However, a major describer of occupational achievement is emotional intelligence. This is a thing you can study out of college.

This review will demonstrate to you the way to boost your EQ and direct you on how to become a greater leader, colleague, or partner. It will also show you how you can develop your happiness with awareness.

The fundamental rule behind this technique has 3 steps: First, you need to improve your potential to focus your mind when you see appropriate, and focus meditation would be beneficial for doing so. Thanks to this advanced focus, you may develop your knowledge by understanding your cognitive and sensory operations better. Finally, by concentrating on this basis, you can create good cognitive practices that will allow you to enhance your welfare and effectiveness.


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Chapter 1 – One of the various kinds of intelligence is emotional intelligence.


What do you think is intelligence? Owning a top IQ? Excellent language talents? or having skills in music?

The first person who suggested the hypothesis of diverse intelligence was Howard Gardner, an improvement psychologist at Harvard. He discussed that a kid who does not have talents in mathematics but who demonstrates language or art skills would be clever.

To show his argument, a roll of various kinds of intelligence that included among other things, inter- and intra-personal intelligences were prepared by Gardner. The meaning of having interpersonal intelligence is to realize your inner senses, worth, ​​and targets. That is, interpersonal intelligence involves being hip to others’ feelings, senses, and motivations.

It combines to create inter- and intra-personal intelligences, emotional intelligence, the skill to grasp the emotions and feelings of others and oneself, and the skill to utilize this information to lead your moves and notions.



Emotional intelligence was divided into five categories by Daniel Goleman, the writer of “Emotional Intelligence”:

● The first one is self-awareness. Knowledge of your inner state and choices, sources, and instincts are in it.

● The second one is self-regulation. The skill to dominate your drives, sources, and mood is in the self-regulation category.

● The third one is motivation. The emotional skill to lead yourself towards your goals is in it.

● Empathy is the fourth one, and your understanding of other people’s senses, concerns, and requirements are in the empathy category.

● The last class is societal abilities, and your skill in impacting others is in it.

But, are there any utilities of emotional cleverness?

Let’s look at how Bill Duane, who is the engineering boss, utilized EQ education to advance his living.

Thanks to her emotional intelligence education, Duane was aware that he required more time alone and decreased the days he worked to 4 per week. As working less than a day, he had more time to concentrate on his welfare and was motivated to do more although working less. He turned out to be a greater listener, discovered how to organize his anger, and see cases from various views. In conclusion, Duane not only enhanced his living in addition to improving the times of his colleagues.

Now, you have learned EQ. Let’s make pressure to see completely how beneficial it may be for your daily life.


Chapter 2 – By putting it into exercise, EQ may significantly enhance your business performance.


At present, you understand EQ, so, move on to the second step which will show you the way it may aid you and the way it may be enhanced.

One of the advantages of improving your EQ has been providing a better job performance. For instance, as shown in a study by American psychologist Martin Seligman in the 1980s, better motivation, which is a category among the 5 of EQ, has been said to increase optimism, which will increase your performance in the workplace. He discovered that positive insurance representatives performed 8 % and 31 % better than their pessimistic colleagues in the next year. This research shows that emotional skills like positivism may have a significant impact on worker performance.

With the help of comprehending and owning emotional intelligence, you can be a greater leader.

To give a good instance, Gerald Grinstein, Delta Airlines CEO, who encountered the challenging work of reducing costs could be said. Although Grinstein was difficult, thanks to his emotional capabilities, he could retain the devotion and drive of his workers during that challenging time. He realized the significance of incurring a favorable working era, restoring effective keeping in touch, and constructing trust.



But naturally, although you don’t have high EQ similar to Grinstein, do not be upset because it can be learned to advance it, even though they have low emotional intelligence.

An example in this regard is Ebenezer Scrooge, who was the character from the Christmas Carol of Charles Dickens. Initially, Scrooge shows nominal levels of interpersonal EQ, and it cannot make him happy although his wealth. As you probably remember, three ghosts each of whom want to resist their weak awareness visited Scrooge. Finally, by accepting his opinions and behaviors, Scrooge was succeeded to develop his EQ.

Your EQ can be raised even if there is no help from supernatural guests. Let’s see some true technical pieces of stuff about the way you could be successful.


Chapter 3 – With the concentration of meditation, relief, and vigilance are developed, and thanks to it, we are happier.


Although meditation looks like a charming thing, it’s just like a cognitive exercise. Just as many training pieces of equipment in the sports salon are made to work out different muscles, various kinds of meditation have been planned to exercise various pieces of the brain.

The definition of focus meditation or mindfulness can be given as the best mental education to enhance emotional intelligence. Thanks to education both our meta attention and mindfulness, our concentration is developed.

William James who was a psychologist through the end of the 19th century described attention as “taking ownership of the mind openly and vividly”.

On the contrary, the “focus of focus” is meta attention. What you can do is pay attention or notice at times your focus has changed.

For example, think that you’re riding a bike. When you ride a bike, you keep your equilibrium with many small retrievals. When a bike bends somehow, you set yourself in the opposite direction, and the opposite version is valid too. Thanks to the realization of these small retrievals, you will be kept vertical and in equilibrium, you will have a soft driving feeling.



The same thing is valid for attention. If you train meta attention, you may bring back your focus to the job at hand whenever you start losing focus. By repeating this, you will have prolonged deep concentrations.

Besides providing better concentration, with the help of attention, your mindfulness will be cleaned and make you more comfortable.

Imagine a bowl of water that is filled with residue, stirring constantly and causing turbidity. As you would stop mixing and abandon the bowl, the water would calm down and become bright and the precipitate would fall.

Alike, if you can calm down your brain, your anxiety and worries will fall and help you see things more distinctly.

And, by Alan Wallace who is a relaxed concentrated specialist, cleansing your mind with the help of meditation has been said to help achieve natural happiness.

To start focus meditation, you should also find a comfy seating location in which you sense both comfort and awake. Start with 3 leisurely, profound exhalations, and start breathing naturally. At present, you should be your attention to your breath. To focus on this, you can do it by observing the increase and decrease of the belly, or feel it in the nostrils. If you notice your attention drifting, you should slowly take that back in breathing. Even if you could continue for 10 minutes, it can make you feel like it’s more time.


Chapter 4 – By constructing an intense emotion of self, you can learn how you would dominate your emotions.


According to Mingyur Rinpoche who is a Buddhist educator, at times you see an acute river right now, he said that you have already been rising upper it. Alike, when you can understand a feeling, you have finished being on its throne.

You require self-awareness to come through your feelings; and whenever you know yourself better, you will be more successful.

In their observations that were made by psychology specialists Cherniss and Caplan, self-awareness training has been shown to aid financial consultants of American Express achieved in jobs. Thanks to the training, they discovered to be more conscious on inefficient self-talk – negative, self-harming stories that we often say ourselves – and with this awareness, they were permitted to have less suspicion about selves, and with this, they earned higher gains for themselves, and they gave better advice more for their customers.

Also, after realizing the way they responded to high-stress conditions, they began to comprehend the significance of methods against stress like meditation. As their anxiety levels decreased, they could operate with retrieved concentrate and succeeded in their works.

With the help of activating the neocortex, in other words, thinking of the brain, self-awareness works.

When you sense your feelings will burst anytime in an unrestricted way, the explosion is analyzed by self-awareness calling the neocortex. 

For example, at times your manager condemns something, you may feel the desire to return to her, but if you think a little bit, and study the condition, your neocortex recommends contrary to that. It is wiser to use that piece of brain in developing your business performance, with your rational and calm thinking of your feedback.



Thanks to self-awareness, your self-assurance can be also increased. The best instance of this is a writer who uses the notion of self to be self-assured.

He planned his speech at the Festival of Peace in Berlin. At the time he arrived there, he used his self-consciousness to make him remember his negatives and positives, because of felting majorly nervous. He remembered his information level of erudition exercises in his corporate environment and his talent to build an environment of peace and whimsy.

He also noticed his missing as he focused on words meanwhile talking English, and remembered that he might come through this by concentrating on breathing, smiling, and paying attention.

With this self-consciousness, he could have been comfier and more assured throughout the carnival.


Chapter 5 – Concrete stimulators, such as a shared goal, protect employee motivation well if compared with external awards.


It is believed by many managers that external awards like money or bonuses are the greatest reasons for high performance in the work area.

However, if intangible motivators are compared to concrete ones, intangible ones are more effective in increasing success and profit.

Here is an instance; by the web shoe seller Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, his digital store has been evolved into a rich firm. And providing happiness was the mystery of Hsieh’s achievement. Based on this morality, Hsieh promoted a working culture that promotes worker satisfaction, which leads to better client service and, therefore, happier clients. 

According to Hsieh, satisfaction in a job is believed to come from 3 sources.



Pleasure is the first one. Such satisfaction comes from following the following summit – for instance, a huge advancement, a thanks note from coworkers, a special saying from the CEO, or a tale in news. The disadvantage would be that these types of satisfaction do not last long.

Passion is the second resource of felicitousness. If you are ambitious about a job, you are in a condition of flow – full participation and concentration. It has been reported by humans that they experience different activities, including neurosurgery, filing, and meditation. Besides, passion is more efficient than pleasure.

As a result, as Hsieh thought, what arises from bigger aims is happiness. What this is about is involving in bigger things than yourself, and this type is the most efficient.

When it aligns with the aim of the job, it does not feel like a chore anymore. You understand the thing they tell: Whenever you like the thing you are doing, you are going to wait to do it each day.

Let’s look at Norman Fischer, this poet loves his work so much, and he does not think that it is not working. Although Fischer, who was a famous Zen trainer and frequently worked more hours than Silicon Valley experts, he has never labored throughout his vita.


Chapter 6 – The thing that has benefits in both private and professional communications, is empathy.


If you desire to be talented in drawing, you should make practice a lot. The exact principle that is valid for enhancing your empathy is a kind of emotional cleverness with many useful properties.

By empathizing, not only will you prove to be kind to them and make them feel come through; you will also create trust. 

Let’s look at empathy training done by the writer. She heard to his training couple with her emotions, and then at the time she came to end, she said to him what she thought she felt. At the final of the training, she burst into tears and realized that this has not been understood for long periods.

Empathy is one of the things that can be utilized to regulate intercourses by assisting us to handle clashes with others, colleagues, and children. Thanks to this, you may get a coming through together with helping you solve problems quickly.

The writer used this technique to solve his anger at Eric who is his fresh administrator. When he decided he should take care of the subject, the writer regulated a gathering with Eric intending to speak about his bad emotions. Meanwhile, in the meeting, individual matters like life tales and desires were mentioned. Thanks to this conversation, they learned each other well, and finally, the writer has started to feel no longer offended.



If you feel that you do not sense empathy, you may give a shot to empathy exercises like “Similar to Me” and “Liking Compassion.”

“Just Like Myself” is waiting for you to comprehend that they want to be satisfied and liked, similar to you by imagining yourself in the shoes of the other person.

Loving Kindness is the second training that needs you to be involved in meditation and have favorable desires for others. By wanting the greatest for someone else, your empathy capacity will increase and your intercourse with them will develop.


Chapter 7 – One thing that can lead you to be a better leader is to experience the love of others.


Was it said that what you require to overcome life is to be egoistic and buy something for yourself?

You should ignore it, because nothing can be more than the truth, and particularly if you make a plan to being a great leader.

Because if people love their leaders, they will labor harder.

It was examined by which personal attributes distinguish successful executives from others by Kouzes and Posner. In that study, the main differentiator was found to be love. Successful executives show warmth and love towards their workers. Also, on the contrary, low-performing executives, successful executives do not fear to enhance near intercourse or have their opinions with their teams.

Compassionate leaders are greater in their work since they would work to alleviate the pain of their employees.

By Jim Collins who was the writer of Construct to Last, hundreds of major American firms were researched between 1965 and 1995, discovering that leadership is what makes a good organization great. Large companies had compassionate, humble leaders who wanted to make a difference in the world.



Because easier time can be owned by merciful leaders to influence others.

Let’ see the famous psychology specialist Ekman, who had scary teenage years and became someone angry. Around 2000, Ekman received an invitation to a talk at the conference with Lama. He reached into his hand and seated with Lama holding his hand. This basic movement affected Ekman deeply. He sensed “greatness” in his whole existence, and finally, in the change, he discovered his anger diminished and his life worth looking at. Starting from this shaking time, it was participated in literature Ekman further improving his comprehension of emotional equilibrium, mercy, and sacrifice.

Don’t forget: as you start to discover out happiness and satisfaction in life and job, start investigating inside yourself.


Search Inside Yourself: The Unexpected Path to Achieving Success, Happiness (And World Peace) by Chade-Meng Tan Book Review


All humans own the talent to enhance their beings, and development can be provided through focus, cognitive brightness, invention, and empathy. With the explained training and principles, we may whole become better orators, more optimistic people, calm partners, and abled workers.


Thanks to the body-examine practice, they assist you to concentrate and relieve.

As a first step, start by sitting down and closing your eyes, discovering a comfy location to breathe for two minutes. Then, pass every piece of the body step by step, concentrating on the feelings you sense around the face, head, shoulders, neck, front, and back. Are you able to feel a sensation too? Then bring a positive feeling into your mind, with remembering a favorable instance. Further, work to find out where the body feels this sensation. Finally, waste two minutes breathing normally and return to now.

The reason that body combing is precious is that it enables you to concentrate on physical feelings higher than you can normally, furthermore, that makes you relax, which can aid you to fall asleep.



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Savaş Ateş

I'm a software engineer. I like reading books and writing summaries. I like to play soccer too :) Good Reads Profile: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/106467014-sava-ate

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