• Your actions don’t have to be big. “Play the ball before it plays you! . It makes the problem less daunting and more concrete. Not only does focusing solely on your Circle of Concern make you feel like garbage, the resulting sense of helplessness actually makes your Circle of Influence shrink. Being proactive versus reactive means that you choose to act, rather than be acted upon; you create your circumstances, rather than being subject to them. Like most American boys, I played baseball in the summers. Focusing on your Circle of Influence increases your Circle of Influence. Being proactive vs. reactive is a challenge that requires careful though about all your actions. the weather) and their social environment (e.g. .”, “I’ve got a morose personality. So if the weather is foul, a reactive person will be in a foul mood, too. He chose to find meaning in his suffering. Reactive people experience stimulus and response as “welded” together. Proactive people act rather than being acted upon. He says it's the foundation of all of the other 6 Habits, making it the number one habit to possess. Think of proactive and reactive examples from your life based on this self-fulfilling prophecy idea. When faced with a difficult reality, being proactive vs. reactive means accepting the hard facts but deciding how to create the most positive situation you can out of them. What’s more, chronic stress can blunt executive function, which makes it harder for you to accurately judge between actual and phony threats. Whenever I attacked a grounder, things usually turned out better compared to when I just waited for the ball to roll to my feet. Covey uses existential psychiatrist Viktor Frankl as a supreme example of being proactive even when it seems you’ve been stripped of every last bit of your autonomy. “Play the ball before it plays you” is a cue to players to attack the ball and take the initiative on the grounder. These are proactive stud… When you focus on your Circle of Concern, your Circle of Influence shrinks. He chose hope. While I can’t do much to change the temperament I was born with, that doesn’t mean I have no control over how I react to the world around me; there’s still a space between the stimuli and the response. You can’t blame anything on other people or the cards you were dealt because you recognize that you always have a choice of how you act and how you respond to something. How you speak guides how you see the world. I become more proactive. Intellectually I know that the foul moods I experience from time to time and the worries I experience on a day-to-day basis are the result of being reactive and not proactive to life’s challenges, and yet I still find myself resorting to reactive language whenever I encounter a problem: “There’s nothing I can do about this . 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That feeling of empowerment impels you to take more action, which causes you to feel more empowered, which causes you to take more action. The attitudinal is the highest value in life, in terms of creating your own paradigm and being proactive. And increased competency allows you to have more influence on the world around you. Here's what you'll find in our full The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People summary: Your email address will not be published. When I’m on top of my meditation, I’m just a lot calmer and positive. Should You Lift Weights Before Doing Cardio? . A bit of stress during uncertain times can act as a positive way to prepare your mind and body for performance. Now that you’ve been some proactive and reactive examples, you should be able to identify places where you’ve been proactive vs. reactive in your life. It can be difficult to adopt a proactive approach, especially if you’ve spent years blaming your circumstances and conditioning. We only recommend products we genuinely like, and purchases made through our links support our mission and the free content we publish here on AoM. It wasn’t until I read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey when I was a freshman in high school that I realized that “play the ball before it plays you” also serves as an excellent maxim for life. Following “play the ball before it plays you” made me a better fielder. Talk about staying power. how people treat them) to determine how they feel and act. Reactive and Proactive are two terms between which a number of differences can be identified. If you have a boss who’s very smart but a total micromanager, being proactive versus reactive doesn’t mean living in denial and resigning by saying, “that’s just the way it is.” A proactive response entails working to buffer his weaknesses and focusing on his strengths; go above and beyond to provide him extra information and do tasks before he asks. Focusing on your Circle of Influence creates a virtuous cycle of action that not only leads to positive change on the items originally in that Circle, but broadens what can be encompassed within it.