“Look at the word responsibility—“response-ability”—the ability to choose your response.

Highly proactive people recognize that responsibility. They do not blame circumstances, conditions, or conditioning for their behavior. Their behavior is a product of their own conscious choice, based on values, rather than a product of their conditions, based on feeling.”

~ Stephen R. Covey

from “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”

Be Proactive.

That’s Habit #1 of Stephen Covey’s uber-best selling book, “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.”

So what’s it mean to “be proactive”?

In short, to be proactive simply means to be “response-able”—to be capable of consciously choosing how you respond to any given situation.

Are you a Pavlovian dog—mindlessly responding to a given stimulus in your life?

Not so good.

Can you step BETWEEN the normal stimulus --> response patterns of your life and CHOOSE a new response to a given stimulus?

Good.

How can you be more proactive and less reactive today?

Let’s be proactive. Let’s be response-able to the challenges we face in our lives.

…

One more thing: How’s your language?

According to Covey, a reactive person says things like, “There’s nothing I can do.” Or “That’s just the way I am.”

A proactive person, on the other hand, likes to say things like, “Let’s look at our alternatives.” And, “I can choose a different approach.”

Watch your language. Are you being a reactive victim or a proactive creator of your life?

It’s very (!) important you consciously make that decision.