Sean Walsh, the Co-Founder of 1904labs, explains what it means to be proactive rather than reactive.
Transcript
Be proactive, what he means by that is don't be reactive. So there's this, if you, there's a visual in the book that causes a stimulus something happens, and then a response. And when he talks about being proactive, is I'm not a machine, I'm a human, and I can choose how I respond to any input that comes my way.
And so it's really that spending a second to, you know, you tell me, "Hey you're a jerk." Well, I can immediately say, "So are you," or I can stop and say, "Hmm, how is it that I want to respond to that?"
And, this one got used a lot in my house, in my home, because my kids do things all the time. They're teenagers. And it just irritates us. But the question is what do I want? Do I want harmony in the house? Or do I want to be right against my kid? And that's a good example of just saying be proactive.
Covey says you're in control of your responses. It's not somebody else's responsibility how you responded to some input. It's yours. And that's why it's the first habit because that's hard you know people talked about victim, you know being a victim. I couldn't get my work done because it was too noisy in the lab. Or I couldn't do this because the client didn't give me this. Well those are all excuses.
You want to be somebody that says, "Hey, look I'm proactive. I own, I own my responses I own the way I think about things."
And so that's why it really is the first... because if you don't get that right, if you're constantly thinking you're being acted upon by somebody else. Then it's unlikely you can embrace the rest of the habits. And so I think that's why be proactive is the first habit.
Because he's saying you got to get straight with that. That you've got control.
How, you know, it's your responsibility how you react. To whatever comes your way.
ATTRIBUTION:
All excerpts are from: https://www.stephencovey.com/7habits/7habits.php and the book: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People®.
