Gaining on It: How You Can Make Impact Every Day
Emotional intelligence tips to fill your tank & make the world just a little bit better
by Patty Freedman
There’s a moment that comes for me midway through folding a mountain of laundry, or somewhere over the Atlantic on a long flight, or when I’m winded on a steep trail and can’t yet see where it ends. It’s the time when tired meets doubt and I’m ready to quit.
Just then I usually hear my father-in-law Hank’s voice in my head. Hank had a wry sense of humor and a way with words. “Looks like you’re gaining on it!” he’d say, with complete sincerity. Sometimes I’d laugh at the absurdity — yes, I was gaining on the laundry pile, technically. The second half of the flight was bringing me closer to home. And there, just ahead, the trail was leveling out.
Are you feeling just about done? Not much left in the tank? I want to give you a boost this Mental Health Awareness Month. Because right now, with EQ Day on June 6 just around the corner, I know we’re gaining on it.
A Global Day of Action
EQ Day is a moment for people everywhere to commit to practicing the human skills that shape the quality of our lives, our relationships, and the world we share.
Every year on June 6, individuals, educators, leaders, families, and communities in countries around the world do one thing to practice emotional intelligence — and together, those small commitments add up to something much larger than any one of us. Hosted by Six Seconds, EQ Day is open to everyone — any individual, school, organization, or community can participate.
Make your commitment to take EQ action here: EQday.org
What a World with More EQ Looks Like
EQ Day answers the question “What would a world look like with a billion people practicing emotional intelligence?” Close your eyes and imagine a parent who listens patiently helping their child get ready for school. A teacher who makes space for feelings in his lesson. A manager who leads with empathy supporting her team. A neighbor who chooses curiosity over judgment and makes the street feel safer.
That’s not a dream — it’s what we can all make happen in small moments that add up.
We are decades into research evidence showing what is possible when we practice EQ. The Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley finds that people with strong social connections have a 50% increased chance of longevity, along with lower rates of anxiety and depression and greater capacity for empathy and cooperation.
The World Economic Forum Future of Jobs report has identified empathy and active listening as among the skills least replaceable by AI — fundamentally human, requiring the kind of complex interpersonal connection no machine can replicate. Research from CASEL show that social and emotional learning prepares people not just to perform better, but to be active contributors to a just and caring society. And a peer-reviewed study of 28,000 adults across 166 countries by Six Seconds found that people with higher emotional intelligence are more than ten times as likely to report strong outcomes across effectiveness, relationships, quality of life, and wellbeing.
When You Wonder If It’s Making a Difference
If you’re a coach, a practitioner, an educator, or a leader doing this work — you’ve probably felt the doubt. The job is demanding and you can’t always see what it’s adding up to. Researchers who study burnout have found that one of the most reliable protectors against it isn’t rest, or even workload reduction — it’s the feeling that your work makes a difference.
Psychologists Edward Deci and Richard Ryan found that purpose and agency, the belief that what you do matters and that you have real influence over outcomes, is fundamental to psychological wellbeing.
The 2025 World Happiness Report, identifies trust, kindness, and social connection as the roots of happiness. These are the same qualities that emotional intelligence builds.
Do you need a boost with your mental health? You can find more on EQ and mental health flourishing including a library of 80 practices in Flourishing for Mental Health Wellbeing here.
Looking Back Over My Shoulder
It’s the little steps forward that add up to a larger impact. Back in 2020, Six Seconds started asking whether emotional intelligence could play a meaningful role in the climate crisis. We saw the need for inner skills to support young climate activists experiencing burnout to sustain themselves, collaborate, and lead. We started small with a virtual conference. But overtime it gained momentum. That virtual conference became a model. The model became an in person session. From those live activations, we conducted peer-reviewed research, and created a research partnership with Yale Collaboratory, and now with them we have a second study in prepress. We’ve been to COP28, New York Climate Week, Padua Climate Week, and this year London Climate Week. We’ve partnered with NGOs including World Bank Group, Roots and Force of Nature, bringing EQ to youth climate activists supported by practitioners from our own network.
Today we’re launching the Climate of Emotions Leadership Accelerator — This 6 month program equips emerging climate leaders with emotional intelligence, narrative leadership, and facilitation skills — helping them transform climate emotions into meaningful action, and build the inner resilience required for long-term work on environmental sustainability.
If you know a young leader who would thrive in this opportunity — or if that’s you, applications are open at 6sec.org/coe/apply. Applications close May 22.
None of that was visible from the beginning. It only came into focus when I stopped and turned around and saw how far we’ve come on this project that I can get the scale of the contribution we’ve made. It gives me energy to keep going and I can’t wait to see what’s ahead.
Spreading from Flower to Flower
Desmond Tutu said: “Do your little bit of good where you are; it is those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.”
EQ Day is an emergent movement. Think of it like bees moving from flower to flower. Each act of emotional intelligence spreads to the people around us. One conversation shifts a relationship. One workshop changes how a team works together.
The pledge wall at EQday.org already holds commitments from 40+ pledges across 20+ countries — Vietnam, Brazil, Colombia, Albania, Italy, South Korea, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, and more. The 2026 goal is 300 pledges, 10,000 people reached, 50+ countries. We hope you will join the movement and get your impact counted.
Like Bees in a Hive
The pledge is simple: For #EQday 2026, I will ___. One real conversation. A workshop for your community. A commitment to pause before you react. Every pledge goes on the global Commitment Wall at EQday.org, where your contribution becomes part of something you can actually see.
So if you’ve been doing this work and wondering whether any of it is making a difference — look at the wall. Look at the countries. Look at what one committed person, multiplied by thousands, is building.
Looks like you’re gaining on it.
Make your pledge at EQday.org
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