284 Be Proactive (Covey 7 Habits of Highly Effective People)

Habit 1: Be Proactive
Determinisim:
Determinism is the belief that “We are largely determined by conditioning and conditions.” It is the opposite of being proactive.

Covey identifies 3 Types of Determinism: Genetic, Psychic  & Environmental

Genetic Determinism
“Your Grandparents did it to you.”
 

 
Psychic Determinism
“Your Parents did it to you.”

Environmental Determinism
“Your boss, or your spouse, or your finances, or politicians did it to you.”

Stimulus-Response Theory
Theory: “We are conditioned like Pavlov’s dogs to respond to stimulus.”
This is again a deterministic way of looking at the world.
Is Determinism accurate?
“How accurately do these deterministic maps describe the territory?”
 

Victor Frankl
Start - determinist/ Freud (childhood - > Personality)
Concentration Camp - suffering...
“Self-aware being who could look as an observer at his very involvement.”
He could decide within himself how all of this was going to affect him.
“Between what happened to him, or the stimulus, and his response to it, was his freedom or power to choose that response.”

“Freedom” vs. Liberty
“Through a series of disciplines...he had more freedom than his Nazi captors.”
“They had more liberty, more options to choose from in their environment; but he had more freedom, more internal power to exercise his options.”
“Within the freedom to choose:
Self-awareness Imagination Conscience Independent will”

“Proactivity” Defined
“It means more than merely taking initiative. It means that as human beings, we are responsible for our own lives. Our behaviour is a function of our decisions, not our conditions. ”
“Response-ability =
the ability to choose your response.
“Their behaviour is a product of their own conscious choice, based on values, rather than a product of their conditions, based on feeling.”
“The ability to subordinate an impulse to a value is the essence of the proactive person.”
“Reactive people are driven by their feelings, by circumstances, by conditions, by their environment.”

Being a Proactive Person
“Proactive people are driven by values - carefully thought about, selected and internalized.”
“Proactive people are still influenced by external stimuli, whether physical, social or psychological.
“But their response to the stimuli, conscious or unconscious, is a value-based choice or response.”

Frankl: 3 Central Values

1. Experiential (what happens to us)
2. Creative (what we make)
3.  Attitudinal (our response to
challenge)

Taking the Initiative
“Our basic nature is to act, and not be acted upon.”
“The difference between people who exercise initiative and those who don’t is...night and day. ...I’m talking about a 5000-plus percent difference.”

Business and Initiative
“Businesses...can be proactive. ...The organization does not have to be at the mercy of the environment; it can take the initiative to accomplish...shared values...”

Proactive Language

Reactive

Proactive

“There’s nothing I can do”

Let’s look at our alternatives

I can’t

I choose

I must

I prefer

If only

I will

Circles of Concern/Influence
Proactive Focus:
“They work on things they can do something about...”
“...causing their Circle of Influence to increase.”

Reactive Focus:
“They focus... on circumstances over which they have no control...causing their Circle of Influence to shrink.”
Expanding the Circle of Influence Proactive is not:
“Pushy, aggressive, insensitive.”
Proactive is:
“Smart, value driven...”
“Proactive people...read reality, and they know what’s needed.”

To Have vs. To Be
“The Circle of Concern is full of have’s”
“I’ll be happy when I have my house paid off”
“If only...
…I had a better boss.”
…I had a more patient husband/wife.”
…I had a degree.”
…I had more time to myself.”