Be Proactive (Tips to become effective)

Be Proactive

The first thing you need to do when you're thinking of becoming effective is to first be proactive. Our behavior is a function of our decisions, not our conditions. We can subordinate feelings to 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 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.

In making such a choice, we become reactive.  Reactive people are often affected by their physical environment. If the weather is good, they feel good. If it isn't, it affects their attitude and their performance. Proactive people can carry their own weather with them. whether it rains or shines makes no difference to them. They are value driven; and if their value is to produce good quality work, it isn't a function of whether the weather is conducive to it or not.

Reactive people are also affected by their social environment, by the social weather. when people treat them well, they feel well, when people don't, they become defensive or protective. reactive people build their emotional lives around the behaviour of the other.