A lot of people will wait until something happens before they can respond or react. A friend of mine once said that "you do not have to wait until it starts to rain before you fix your roof, you need to fix it while the sun is still shining." This is why you have to choose action over reaction. You have to understand that you are the driver of your life, not a passer-by or a passenger. You do not have to wait for something to happen first before you can react. Which means you have to be in a proactive mode, not a reactive mode. More often than not, things may not happen the way you want it until you have taken a step to make it happen by your actions. Your actions should set a precedence for what you want to see. Be proactive, not reactive.
Image from Pexels
While I was in school, there was a particular organisation I worked briefly with during one of the vacations. It was a media and publicity firm. There was a time that a software glitch happened on a Friday morning, which wiped out some data from the server, and it affected two departments. But something happened that taught me a lesson even though it did not affect my own department directly. A client sent a message by Friday evening that they are coming by Monday morning by 10:00am to collect some campaign data. The two Heads of Department that were affected got the message. The first one started panicking, blaming the IT people for the software glitch, and all.
She came to work on Monday morning by 7:30am visibly upset, she went to the IT department, but they were busy trying to resolve the issue. She hoped they would resolve it before 10:00am, but they could not. When the client came, she met him and explained what happened, and told him that she will send the data once they fix it. The client was so angry and disappointed. But the other department made something different. Their Head of Department did not want to solely put their hope on the IT fixing the issue, so he assembled his team over the weekend, and they pulled a former request by the client. With that, they were able to make a sketchy graphic of what the client might want. He took it to the client and explained that they had technical glitch but he was able to fix up another design. The client was impressed by his quick thinking and proceeded with it. You see, the same situation, but one was proactive while the other was reactive.
Being proactive changes a lot of things because it flips the formula. Instead of waiting for the world to come right to you, you can move to the world instead. You do not wait for circumstances to dictate your life, neither do you wait for the kind of change you want to come. Rather you take up actions and create the kind of change that you want. You have to understand that you are the one who holds the steering to the wheel of your life. When you have this mentality, you will stop being a victim of your environment, and start creating your own path.
Image from Pexels
Being proactive changes the way you think and speak. Reactive people would say something like "there was nothing I could do," "I did not have any choice," "this is how I was built," "they made me angry," and so on. These statements show lack of control, and also show that you are not on top of your game. But a proactive person would say something like "let me explore the options available," "I will determine how to respond to this," "I can change a couple of things." Just to tell you, a proactive person will focus their time and energy on the things that they can change, instead of wasting their energy on the things that they do not have any control of.
It is worthy to note that being proactive is not what you do once in a while, you have to practice it daily. For example, at home, in your place of work, you should not wait to be told what to do, you can think out a solution even before problems grow. In your relationship for example, you do not have to wait until your partner apologises or says kind words, you can lead the way by showing kindness and leading the way. So you see, in each day, you should be proactive and not reactive.
Thanks for reading