Be Proactive

The first habit Steven Covey talks about in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is Be Proactive. This is the habit of personal vision. What’s it mean to Be Proactive? It means you have the power to make your own decisions. When you use this power to choose your responses according to self-determined values, you are proactive.

To Be Proactive is to be responsible. Being responsible is being able to consciously choose how you will respond to any given situation. Proactive people recognize that responsibility. They don’t blame circumstances for their behavior.

Proactivity means that, as human beings, we are responsible for our own lives. Our behavior is a function of our decisions, not our conditions. Reactive people are driven by feelings, circumstances, conditions, and the environment. Proactive people are driven by carefully considered, selected, and internalized values. Proactivity means taking the initiative to make things happen.

We need to understand how we focus our time and energy to be effective. Steven Covey says, we need to work on things we can control, (Our Circle of Influence) instead of reacting to or worrying about conditions or circumstances which we have little or no control. (Our Circle of Concern) Reactive people focus their efforts on the Circle of Concern. Proactive people focus on the Circle of Influence. Work on things you can do something about and your Circle of Influence expands.

At the heart of our Circle of Influence is our ability to make and keep commitments and promises. This is what builds our integrity and one of the clearest manifestations of our proactivity. Covey says, your integrity to the commitments you make is one of, and perhaps the most important factor in living a life filled with consistent joy and happiness.

Are you honoring your commitments? If you have have broken commitments, your weighing yourself down with this lack of integrity. You know when your not doing what you say your going to do. It might be as simple as getting up at a certain time this morning, not working out, or not getting to the goals you set for yourself. If you don’t honor these commitments to yourself, how will you ever accomplish much in life. Success in life starts with honoring our commitments to ourselves and others. It’s as simple as that. The good news is you can start today. Be Proactive.

Have an awesome day,

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