Whenever I'm assessing how someone copes with their stress, determining whether they approach life in a proactive or reactive way gives me a gauge on how much effort I have to put into the "talk therapy". I'm speaking from experience alone and these aren't universal facts.
Proactive - taking charge with their life before shit happens. They initiate what they want to do because they know what they want to happen.
Reactive - come what may, I'll just worry about it when it happens. These often come unprepared and become impulsive with their coping choices.
Being impulsive also happens with people that approach life proactively but the themes tend to be forecasting plans like reaching from point A to point B.
Trying to help someone that leads a proactive lifestyle is easier because most of the time they already have solutions for their problems and just need a little push or tip their energies into positive directions. These are often people with high sense of worth and self reliance. They're also the hardest types to win over because they don't readily accept external help. But once trust has been established, these types tend to be the fastest ones to bounce from their problems.
You don't need to tell them twice about what not to do. You only need to make it make sense for them and show how to align your goals.
People that approach life with a reactively tend to have no plans and require more effort to get with the program. What they have is a set of skills to cope with problems and skills that readily get them into problems. The common problems include making them realize their default coping mechanisms are unhealthy and used to work until they don't, waiting for external help and security, needs more validation externally, and has trouble forecasting the consequences of today's decision.
I don't think a reactive way of approaching life is necessarily bad because these types are often the most chill people to be with. They live in the present and worry less about the future that has yet to be. They are more concerned about what is now and this makes some decisions less about delayed gratification.
And being proactive or reactive isn't a strict trait, anyone can switch depending on their circumstances and whichever works for them. People who don't see a future for themselves will react with whatever life throws at them at the spur of the moment but when they figure things out for themselves, they can assume a proactive role into one area in their lives.
So to think that one is confined to this category and that is just weird, I say you can be proactive about your career, and be reactive about friends or etc.,
I highlight this trait because it helps me gauge the workload. How much I need to spend time for a person to have any meaningful change if they allow me.
Thanks for your time.