To achieve our professional and personal goals, it is key to become aware of where we are and where we want to go. Once the starting and ending point has been identified, the actions and resources necessary to achieve them will have to be defined..
All action implies movement and each movement produces some change.
That said, taking control over our lives and behaviors will allow us to act consistently to what is desired. There it is when proactivity becomes a key element if we want to obtain satisfactory results for our professional and personal project.
There are several authors who have addressed the subject, one of the best known is Stephen Covey who talks about the habit of proactivity in his book "The 7 Habits of Highly Productive People", published in 1989 with more than 25MM sales in 52 Languages.
For Steve Covey, proactivity is the starting point of personal leadership and sums it up as a person's ability to lead their own life by focusing on their circle of influence. That is, proactive people focus their efforts on what they have control over, what they can really do something about..
Being proactive is don't wait for things to happen, is to make things happen.
Being proactive is not worrying, is to take care.
It is not enough to do a reflective analysis of the situation and consider ideas to achieve a goal, you have to take those ideas into action to transform them into results.
Proactive people focus on having concrete results.
The opposite of being proactive is being reactive.
Being reactive is reacting to what happens and when this happens we are not really masters of our actions, rather we become the result of what happens around us.
A reactive person gives him the power of his reactions to what happens around him, to the circumstances of life.
Being reactive becomes a problem when it becomes a trend or when we behave in this way in situations relevant to our lives since you will be living under the subordination of external stimuli; and not your own personal values, principles and goals.
The danger of reactivity lies in having answers that are not coherent with our true values, distancing ourselves more every day from what we want for ourselves..
The normal thing is that we are not in the extremes, rather we can have a tendency to behave in a reactive or proactive way in certain circumstances or with a generalized tendency as a lifestyle towards one or the other.
Proactive people have a greater development of 4 principles. Which are:
Self-knowledge is key to adopting and correcting one behavior or another, Because it develops self-criticism and self-correction capacity from achieving greater awareness of our strengths, abilities, weaknesses, limiting beliefs; what you want for yourself and what you don't.
Awareness allows you to develop the ability to choose with assertiveness, With it, you can choose what is best for you in each situation and get closer to having a life more aligned with your values and principles..
Imaginative creativity allows you to discover different alternatives and approaches, resulting in a broader perspective to face and handle the situations that arise in such a way that the chances of choosing the most convenient solution are increased.
Self-will increases the capacity for independence and leadership in our lives. As a result, the person will be closer to acting based on their personal goals and not based on pressures or assumptions from the environment.
Practicing these principles will give you a greater chance of succeeding in your professional and personal projects and goals..
Instead of acting on "automatic pilot mode", you will be able to incorporate habits and develop skills that really allow you to be the true leader of your existence.
It is inevitable that you are exposed to contingencies, events that you do not expect, events that take you by surprise. Situations and circumstances that you cannot control and go beyond you. However, what is certain is that you are 100% master of your reactions and behaviors.
You are responsible for controlling how you respond to your surroundings.
An example is in the different reactions that people have to the same situation. Let's look at this assumption:
One of them is dedicated to sending resume day after day to job pages; While the other, in addition to sending a resume, is involved in social projects, does training, creates a personal blog, manages its presence in networks such as Linkedin.
Same situations, but different reactions and behaviors.
By now I suppose you have understood the importance of being proactive to achieve your professional and personal goals..
I propose 3 simple exercises to detect how proactive you are and start now to develop this habit.
Reflect on these questions and detect your level of proactivity, it is important that you be totally honest with yourself.
P 1. Do you have specific and time-bound deadlines to meet your goals? Do you check them and comply?
P 2. Do you base your daily tasks on prior planning that ensures you achieve concrete results?
P 3. How do you react to emergencies? Do you run to attend to them or first you wonder if it is something that can be done at another time?
P 4. Do you concentrate your efforts on obtaining results in what you can do for yourself or in what does not depend only on you?
P 5. Are you looking for several options to the situations that are presented to you or that you imagine may occur?
P 6. When something is going wrong, do you look for other alternatives or change your goals??
P 7. Are you persevering in your goals and trying various options before thinking of taking another course?
P 8. Do you carry out concrete and measurable actions for the ideas and plans that you propose?
P 9. Do you have a B or contingency plan for your business or project?
P 10. Do you have a clear idea of what you want to be and where you want to be in 3-5 years??
Start with these questions and depending on the depth and sincerity of your answers you will be able to identify where the scale weighs the most.
Are you more proactive or reactive? I wait for you in the comments. 😉
A lie repeated a thousand times becomes a great truth.?
Thoughts are decisive in our behaviors and actions, that is why we should be suspicious of what we think about ourselves and what surrounds us, as well as the way we articulate our ideas.
A very clear expression of our thoughts is precisely the language, the way we use words is an expression of our vision of the world and our attitudes towards life.
Listening to yourself and the expressions you use will give you clues to how proactive or reactive you are. (same to do it with others)
I give you some comparative examples so that you can see it more clearly:
Reactive Thoughts Proactive Thoughts
I will try ... I will ...
This is the option for… What are the options for…
I don't know if I can do it ... I can do it ...
I have or must ... I prefer or want ...
Things are like this ... Things can be better ...
Do you realize the difference?
Correct your thoughts with words that empower you It is a good start to develop the habit of basing your behaviors on decisions, not on the conditions or stimuli that arise.
Throughout our lives we assume ready-made truths, social conditioning, beliefs about what is good or bad. It is part of our social adaptation, of feeling and being part of a group or status.
However, letting these social canons automatically define your behaviors takes you away from your essence as a person..
It is one thing to adopt and respect certain group rules as a means to survive in society and quite another is to make your decisions subject to external demands and demands..
You have to establish a dividing line between your social self and your individual self; and for this, having a reflective and critical attitude with your daily life is a good starting point.
I propose to use the great power of why and why as a method to detect the causes and real impact of the situations that arise and the decisions that you are making in each one of them..
Putting it all together…
Being proactive does not mean being dreamy, naive, ridiculously optimistic; neither be reckless or impulsive.
Being proactive means becoming aware that you are responsible for your life, for your actions; that you have options to choose from and that it is your responsibility to choose the most intelligent and convenient one according to your life principles and values.
It means knowing the difficulties and the environment, but concentrating on what you can do, in your circle of influence; NOT in what you cannot control or does not depend on you.
Being proactive means taking the initiative and taking care to make things happen based on a prior thought in accordance with your values and desires..
And now it's your turn, I'd love to know your opinions.
How proactive are you in your professional and personal life?
What is the hardest thing for you to take control of your dreams and life aspirations?
I look forward to seeing you in the comments to discuss these issues..
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