Proactive vs reactive. There is a significant importance to being proactive in our daily lives. Understanding and forecasting things ahead of time will save us from lots of potential headaches down the line. When we are constantly in a reactive state we tend to get overwhelmed easily and aren’t always at our best. Proactive and reactive have their individual benefits though so definitely don’t discount reaction entirely. It’s inevitable.
proactive: creating or controlling a situation by causing something to happen rather than responding to it after it has happened.
reactive: acting in response to a situation rather than creating or controlling it.
A constant state of defense mode
For most of my life, I was in defensive mode reacting to each situation as they came at me and it was exhausting. Over time I started learning patterns that were contributing to my defensive reactions. I didn’t want to continue getting bombarded with things that I felt I had no control over. Some of the things I discovered I did in fact have some control over. This became ammunition. Ammunition for learning how to be proactive.
A good example of proactive vs reactive is a boat captain navigating the seas. When we start out learning to navigate a boat through the ocean we discover many different water, land, and weather conditions that will be very useful for predictions in the future. Future predictions (proactive) are key for readiness. The readiness over time is a good habit to develop.
Navigating our daily lives
When we are in the marina we understand the waters to be normally pretty calm until we depart and come to the channel where the rough waters start to swell. If we have the information ahead of time we can make strategic decisions to approach the waves in such a manner that the journey becomes smoother than just waiting for the swells to hit the boat and then react to them. The sails can already in the position to have optimum wind coming to them.
The constant state of reaction can lead to fatigue
In reaction mode we get hit by a wave then try to get through it and then just as we got through it we get hit with another. This type of mentality isn’t good for navigating the seas. It is better to have a plan of action ahead of time to get through it the safest way possible. It is a process of understanding.
The process of being proactive affords us the opportunity to be way more productive in our day-to-day lives than constantly reacting. Take the time to learn about your lifestyle and how things happen. For most of us, we have trends that kind of give us clues as to how things will go in the future. Kind of like weather trends.
I will say that reacting to things isn’t always bad. Sometimes amazing creativity comes from having to work on the fly. We can learn and create new things that we may not have done prior. There will be a great many things that happen that we could never foresee. If we are so focused on preparing all the time we could get things wrong, so there needs to be a balance. Having a growth mindset is a great thing for this.
Some proactive tips:
Begin with the end in mind.
Anticipate potential issues.
Plan your goals.
Learn to predict.
Learn to prevent.
Be active in your progress.
Keep moving the needle forward.
Conclusion
The process of being proactive is up to you. Learn and do what you can to minimize the constant reacting. When we are always reacting we leave little room for progress. Progress is an everyday thing, but don’t lose sight of the here and now.
