The 7 Habits: Habit 1: Be Proactive

Introduction

The Habit 1 of Stephen R. Covey’s ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" is "Be Proactive". The book of Stephen Covey was published in 1989 but all those habits suggested at that time are still very relevant for all of us. Times Magazine suggested it as one of "The 25 Most influential Business Management Books". Whether you are a business magnate, employee or a fresh pass out, this book is very important for you. People who follow 7 Habits of Highly Effective People are not reactive but they respond to every situation they face. They are also very proactive and invest their time and energy to learn new things. In this article, we will know more about "Habit 1: Be Proactive". 

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Proactive people focus on their circle of influence rather than the circle of concern. Circle of influence deals with own attitude, education, problems and work efficiency but reactive people focus on the circle of concern which deals with those things which are outside of our control like lives of celebrities, other's thinking process, natural disasters, wars, weapons and terrorist threats.

Habit 1: Be Proactive

Proactive people take charge of their own lives and do not blame others for their failures. They believe in taking action according to the problem rather than waiting for others to suggest some ideas. Proactive people also work for their future so that Fear of Failure will be less when the future becomes present. People forget the fact that they become obsolete if they do not invest their time to learn new skills as nowadays technology is changing at a much faster rate. We will become useless for our current organisation if we do not invest our resources to build new skills. Proactive people know this fact and hence they always prepare & execute their skill-building plan. Proactive people put self-check on their ego and they always try to be humble people. Proactive behaviour brings peace of mind as you plan for the future hence you are proactively preparing for challenging situations. Hence when a bad time will come, you are already prepared for that situation.

How to Train Yourself to be Proactive

The best method to become a proactive person is to maintain a "Personal Journal". A personal journal is the best method to record our daily experiences. It also provides a chance to look back at mistakes and future prospect of our current situation. The analysis of our future prospects gives us the opportunity to take proactive initiatives for better preparedness for upcoming opportunities. Start spending at least 5 minutes on writing a personal journal and see its benefits yourself.

Another way is to count your frustration moments so that it's root cause can be identified. We can also identify frustrating moments of our peers and start working on the root causes of those moments. This planning will help us to become proactive people.

Summary

We must keep a distance from some sentences like "I cannot do this" or "I have to do this". These sentences show the reactive behaviour of a person. We must weigh the consequences of "not doing anything" vs "doing something" to challenge the current situation. Doing something is always better than not doing anything and it shows our proactive nature. Stephen Covey suggested that listen to your language for the full day and count the number of times when you use reactive phrases like "I cannot do" or "I have to". Do the similar activity for the people around you. This activity will help you to eliminate reactive behaviour by giving you time to take corrective action for your current reactive behaviour.