Increasing Proactivity
Proactivity is a critical paradigm that guides the behavior of effective individuals. A great way of beginning to understand the nature of proactivity is to consider your first reaction to the following word: Responsibility. What comes to mind when you think of this word? If you are like most members of Support Forums, you are likely thinking of things such as paying your bills, doing your homework, cleaning your house or room, washing your clothes, and so on. These are some of the things that you feel you should be doing. However, proactivity involves placing a different frame around the concept of responsibility, as aptly described by Stephen Covey (1991) in his seminal book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People :
"While the word proactivity is now fairly common in management literature, it is a word you won't find in most dictionaries. It is more than merely taking initiative. It means that as human beings, we are responsible for our own lives. Our behavior is a function of our decisions, not our conditions. We can subordinate feelings into values. We have the initiative and the responsibility to make things happen. Look at the word responsibility—'response - ability'—the ability to choose your response. Highly proactive people recognize that responsibility. They do not blame the 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 feelings" (pg. 70-71).
Perhaps I have convinced you that being proactive is a skill you want to cultivate. You might be wondering, "Okay, but how can I do that?" I have found that a useful method for increasing proactivity involves focusing on three key areas:
- Thoughts
- Language
- Actions
AREA ONE
Thoughts
Reactive people tend to be worriers. If a worrier were conscious of the direction of his or her thoughts, he or she would discover that the focus is mostly on the bad things that could possibly happen (see: Murphy's law). I am not suggesting that you shouldn't plan for the possibility of something bad happening, but to spend most of your time doing this is counterproductive. This is particularly the case if you consider that the vast majority of what we worry about never actually happens. Still, there are lasting effects on our emotional and physical health, as well as our productivity, that are similar to the effects that might have occurred if the feared event actually happened. So, are you a worrier? Proactive people make a conscious effort to give more time for considering what might go right and how to make it go right. In other words, they are more likely to be considered optimists.
AREA TWO
Language
In the past, have you ever heard yourself thinking or saying things like, "She made me angry," or "I couldn't make it to school, I was just too tired to get up on time?" If you have, which is very common, realize that you are speaking reactively. You were giving your freedom to choose away and giving someone else control over your emotions, such as in the first example. Or, perhaps, you were letting circumstances determine what you could or could not do, like in the second example. Proactive people realize that they are in control of their feelings and emotions, and speak in a way that creates and reinforces this reality. So instead of saying, "She made me angry," they might say, "I am angry about what she did." I hope that the difference between the two are clear. When you say, "I am angry about what she did," you are in control of your response. This isn't merely semantics. Our language is one of man's prominent ways of defining reality. How we speak has a great impact on how we view the world.
AREA THREE
Actions
Two important habits to adopt in order to increase proactivity are as follows:
- Making, and keeping, promises
- Setting small goals and working towards achieving them
Most people can't wait to be successful so that they can do whatever it is that they feel like doing. It's this thought, however, that can interfere with ever achieving success in the first place. The bottom line is that effective people do the things that ineffective people don't feel like doing. Proactive people don't necessarily feel like doing those things either, but they do them anyway to strengthen their purpose. There is a big difference between wanting and feeling. Feeling is a momentary desire, such as "I don't feel like getting out of bed," while wanting includes not just the present, but the future as well. A proactive individual acknowledges his present feeling, "I feel tired," but decides to get out of bed anyway in order to attain the result of this action, such as having time to study so they might do well in class, or keeping a promise. Many people say that this is easier said than done, and they are correct. However, you should want to be willing to do what is necessary. So what about you? What do you choose?
I am here to rescue you.
