THE 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE
HABIT 1 : BE PROACTIVE
Your life doesn't just "happen." Whether you know it
or not, it is carefully designed by you. The choices, after all, are yours. You
choose happiness. You choose sadness. You choose decisiveness. You choose
ambivalence. You choose success. You choose failure. You choose courage. You
choose fear. Just remember that every moment, every situation, provides a new
choice. And in doing so, it gives you a perfect opportunity to do things
differently to produce more positive results.
Habit 1: Be Proactive is about taking responsibility for your life.
You can't keep blaming everything on your parents or grandparents. Proactive
people recognize that they are "response-able." They don't blame
genetics, circumstances, conditions, or conditioning for their behavior. They
know they choose their behavior. Reactive people, on the other hand, are often
affected by their physical environment. They find external sources to blame for
their behavior. If the weather is good, they feel good. If it isn't, it affects
their attitude and performance, and they blame the weather. All of these
external forces act as stimuli that we respond to. Between the stimulus and the
response is your greatest power--you have the freedom to choose your response.
One of the most important things you choose is what you say. Your language is a
good indicator of how you see yourself. A proactive person uses proactive
language--I can, I will, I prefer, etc. A reactive person uses reactive
language--I can't, I have to, if only. Reactive people believe they are not
responsible for what they say and do--they have no choice.
