A few days earlier, one of my batch mates from school has texted me about how much he is lost in his mind-set. He has a rather nice job. But he is not satisfied with the outcome of his life. His career has lost the much-wanted growth. He, as a soul, is also not evolving. He is feeling helpless under the burden of this mess. Witnessing, one of the finest and enthusiast boys from school struggling with his own life and dreams, makes me feel bad.
After a bit of analyzing the state of affairs and also his behavior, all I get to know that he has not anticipated nature. In mere words, this means that he waits for things to happen and doesn't prepare himself beforehand to handle situations. This is his biggest drawback to gain success in his life and career.
When he asks for advice, I tell him to be proactive.
What is being proactive?
Proactivity is a relatively new field where the dimension is continuously changing. So stating a perfect and concise definition is somehow not possible.
But some key features define what should be called as being Proactive.
Being ready for our future problems and acting in advance to prevent any damage from happening is the most important primary key point of being Proactive. Taking control in hand and anticipating the future comes under the most generalizing conceptual definition of being proactive.
Difference between proactive and reactive:
- The reactive person reacts to the past. They wait for things to happen or problems to arise. Then they respond accordingly.
- A proactive person always anticipates the future. They come up with a solution even before the problem comes and makes a crisis.
- In reactive development, creativity sparks as they spend some stressful days while handling the situation. This helps them to come with instant ideas to overcome the crisis. But damage always happens to an extent in this behavior.
- Proactive nature prevents damage from occurring. When a person becomes proactive, his analyzing power gets enhanced. Then your vision gets clarity about upcoming situations. Thus it also improves security and stability. Also, in this behavior, you can challenge yourself about how much you can anticipate the right future and invest your time in important things.
Be proactive in your life and work
Here I have listed a few points about how you can be proactive in your life and your work.
Value yourself:
Self-respect and self-esteem are the primary important things in our life. These enhance the beliefs of a person about his/her worthiness. When you value yourself and love yourself, you can make the right decision for yourself and others too. That's why you love yourself and respect yourself before others.
Be focused:
You should have a clear vision of what you want in your life. It can be anything like being a successful homemaker or an inspiring entrepreneur or achieving the success of being the youngest CEO of your company. You first learn how to focus on your goals. Don't be confused and make things unnecessarily complicated. It's your life, and you can be whatever you want to be. All you need is to believe in yourself.
Realistic dreams:
If you earn $10,000 in a month and you want to be a Billionaire in one year, there is more likely that you are going to fail in this goal. Instead of it, if you plan to earn double your current money by the end of a year, then you probably can achieve that goal.
Keep things small and simple:
You can't be in everyone's good book, and you can't change your life overnight. Know the things that you can't do. This is the first step towards your success. When you know that you can't do anything, then you will find new ways to do other things. It will eventually help you to grow in life. That's why keeping it simple is important.
Maintain consistency:
Success is not getting everything in the right place. It is more like a journey. You learn lots of new things along the journey of your success — all you need to take one step forward and keep moving. If you think you are successful today and stop progressing, then it is not success anymore. Success is about how you improve and grow with each passing day. Consistency is the only thing that's called a success. Keep moving.
One step at a time:
If you are in a worse position in your life and you think that it's the dead-end for you. Then, my dear, I want to tell you that it's not. When you feel like the road is closed all you need is to take one single step towards the closed door. You are most likely to see that the closed-door is moving backward, and you find a long way to go. Be brave and take one more step.
Let your work speaks:
When your action and your words do not match, then people will stop believing you. Value your words and commitments and work accordingly. Only then people will rely on you. Set a realistic work schedule and stop over-promising. Also, don't change the plan last minute. It will make you a to-go person for your colleagues and friends.
Be a team worker:
Be polite to others and learn to listen to others. Try to understand others' perceptions of a problem. Ask them to come up with a suggestion about the solution. You also can have a proper discussion of viewpoints, among others. It will help you to enrich yourself with new ideas.
Prioritize things:
Learn how to prioritize important things in your life. If you are in the office, to spend your time and energy to work. Also, when you are enjoying your own space with your family, don't let work stress come in-between.
Gain control over your emotions:
Keep your work and personal life separate. Do not let your emotions mix them up. Sometimes we all face a situation where we could not work as much as we want to because of our emotional state. Try to gain control over your emotions. So you can equally work as well as you can give your time to your emotional aspect.
Positive vibes:
In every day of your life, always find some people to drag you down and some other people who continuously motivate you to work more and to live more. It is upon you about how you choose to be surrounded by the people who carry positive Vibes along with them. When you are surrounded by people who drive you and inspire you, then you have no way other than to succeed in your life.
Make your luck:
If you think that you will really really want something and it will eventually happen in your life, then you are probably wrong. If you are having problems in your life and you think that things are not in the right place, then you should try to be a better version of yours than the last one. There are no magic tricks that could make things happen out of sudden — figuring out that success is not about luck. A person has to go beyond his comfort zone to be successful. Take a single step forward in a moving direction along the right path of your life.
Find a solution:
Work on your problem-solving skills instead of just complaining about the problems. Also, don't just rely on others to come up with solutions. You should always plan a step ahead. Whenever you think that a problem can arise, you analyze the situation to the core and try to be focused on the solution.
Conclusion:
One of the famous quotes of Dr. Stephen R. Covey is, "I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decision."
These lines perfectly describe the nature of a proactive person. With the ever-changing dimension of today's world, only a proactive person can mark his existence and also can happily live with that.
So bring these small changes in your daily life and witness the change of your life's trajectory for betterment. Good luck.