Proactive vs Reactive Mindsets

Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.

Are you proactive or reactive?

During the past two blog posts, I hammered in two archetypal mindsets–that of the Venus flytrap, and that of the bird.

You can learn more about those two archetypal mindsets in their respective blog posts.

However, the point I was trying to drill was the mindsets as they apply to humans.

“What’s the difference between proactive and reactive?”

For a good description, check out Steven Covey’s book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The first habit is to be proactive, rather than reactive.

But to summarize, reactive means that you essentially react to the world around you. Life happens to you, and you just respond to it.

Proactive means that you make reality happen. You take charge. You don’t dawdle.

The Venus flytrap is reactive in that it needs to wait for a chance occurrence before it can get a chance to get its meal.

The bird is proactive in that it doesn’t stop working towards its goal until its goal is done.

The proactive mindset is the one that changes the reality around it. The reactive mindset merely lets reality influence it.

I summarized proactivity vs reactivity by using archetypal qualities of the bird and the Venus flytrap.

It’s extremely crucial that if you want to achieve anything in life, that you’re being proactive and making the first move.

In an interview with Ryan Angelo, Daegan Smith makes an analogy of wrestling to describe proactive vs reactive.

In wrestling, if a person stays in the defense, i.e. the reactive stance, the person has the opportunity to not lose, but he also can’t win. How can you knock your opponent out if you never throw a punch? At best, it’ll be a tie by time-out.

The person in the offensive, i.e. the proactive person, as long as he has a good offensive stance, is the only person who can win.

Typically in wrestling, both are on the offensive though they both play defensive stances as well. This is due to the fact that you must always think like your opponent in order to try to outsmart him. In goal-setting and achieving, your only opponent is yourself–so always stay on the offensive, active, stance.

Make a commitment now to be proactive and act upon your life!

Action steps: How to be proactive

1) Write your goals down. Do you want to make more money? Do you want to lose weight? Make sure your goals are SMART as well.

2) Work with a mentor who can help you achieve those goals, and create a pathway towards your goal, complete with deadlines.

3) Implement the routine and follow the pathway. You most likely won’t perfectly follow the pathway, so make sure you adjust accordingly with your mentor.

4) Be on the lookout–make sure you are actively looking for more efficient ways to do certain tasks.

5) Find other people who are trying to achieve similar goals to you. Network and mastermind with them, and form an accountability group.

Implement these action steps as best as you can. It’s especially important to network with like-minded people. Accountability/mastermind groups are priceless.

In peace, love, and prosperity,

Rasheed

All-expense paid trip to Cancun??

PS:  If your company does not have a step-by-step duplicable system for YOUR success, check this out (unless you are just making way too much money)

For Instant Access to our Step-By-Step System: www.MonthlyMoneySystem.net

If you enjoyed this post about the proactive vs reactive mindsets, comment and share it with others!