Habbit 1 : Be Proactive

"The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People," by Stephen R. Covey is the book I am currently reading at the moment. I touched a bit on the first chapter in my last post. The first chapter is about how we think effects us greatly especially in our actions. The second chapter, which I will discuss in this post is about the first habit in the seven habits talked about in the book. The first habbit is about being "Proactive." Covey explains that theres two kinds of people in this world, Reactive and Proactive. Reactive people tend to blame and make excuses whereas Proactive people take charge of their problems and seek solutions. For example, a Reactive person would say:

There's nothing I can do.
That's just the way I am.
He makes me so mad.
They won't allow that.
I have to do that.
I can't.
I must.
If only.

A Proactive person would say:

Let's look at our alternatives.
I can choose a different approach.
I control my own feelings.
I can create an effective presentation.
I will choose an appropriate response.
I choose.
I prefer.
I will.

The Proactive person's language shows his attitude and how he is in control. And if we remain in control of ourselves we can direct our way to where we want to be.

Another subject the second chapter in the book touched on was the Circle of Concern and the Circle of Influence. The Circle of Concern is the things in our life we worry about but have no "mental or emotional involvement." For example, the flaws of other people, the problems in politics, and circumstances they have no control over. The Circle of Concern results in blaming, accusing attitudes, and feelings of victimization. The Circle of Influence is things we can do something about, which produce positive energy. The biggest influence we have is ourselves and the best thing to do is change yourself to fix a problem. If you are having problems with someone else's weakness it would be reactive to ridicule them about their weakness. The best approach, would be to first set an example by being a role model that could inspire the person to change his/her weakness. "By working on ourselves instead of worrying about conditions, we were able to influence the conditions."

A Proactive person focuses on his/her Circle of Influence which begins to grow and lets the Proactive person eleminate concerns because his influence starts to have an immediate effect on what use to be in his/her Circle of Concern.