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“Look at the word responsibility—“response-ability”—the ability to choose your response.
Highly proactive people recognize that responsibility. They do not blame circumstances, conditions, or conditioning for their behavior. Their behavior is a product of their own conscious choice, based on values, rather than a product of their conditions, based on feeling.”
~ Stephen R. Covey from The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
Be Proactive.
That’s Habit #1 of Stephen Covey’s uber-best selling book, “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.”
So what’s it mean to “be proactive”?
In short, to be proactive simply means to be “response-able”—to be capable of consciously choosing how you respond to any given situation.
Are you a Pavlovian dog—mindlessly responding to a given stimulus in your life?
Not so good.
Can you step BETWEEN the normal stimulus --> response patterns of your life and CHOOSE a new response to a given stimulus?
Good.
How can you be more proactive and less reactive today?
Let’s be proactive. Let’s be response-able to the challenges we face in our lives.
…
One more thing: How’s your language?
According to Covey, a reactive person says things like, “There’s nothing I can do.” Or “That’s just the way I am.”
A proactive person, on the other hand, likes to say things like, “Let’s look at our alternatives.” And, “I can choose a different approach.”
Watch your language. Are you being a reactive victim or a proactive creator of your life?
It’s very (!) important you consciously make that decision.
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