“Be Proactive” are words which we hear time and again and we hear this word in every walk of our life. The word “Proactivity” means more than taking the initiative. It means that as human beings, we are responsible for our own lives and our choices. Many people are born proactive while there are others who have to develop this habit. Proactive people are those who don’t wait till the last moment to let the things happen; they take action when they have control over the situations rather than waiting to respond to things after they have occurred.

Proactive people are responsible people who do not blame circumstances, conditions, or conditioning for their behaviour. Their behaviour is a result of their own conscious choices, which are based on the values they believe. Proactive people don’t get affected by their physical environment; these people are value driven which are carefully thought about, selected and internalized values.

Take an example of any student in school or college. The student who takes out time daily to study will not have much difficulty in answering the questions during the examination as they have prepared well in advance and worked on the things in which they were weak and they don’t struggle with it at the eleventh hour. Whereas a student who leaves the studying at the last minute say a week before the examination will have trouble in grasping too many things in too little time which would result in poor performance in the examination.

Proactive people focus their efforts on the Circle of Influence. The Circle of Influence includes those things about which they can do something.These are things or events over which people have control e.g. problems involving one’s behaviour wherein one has direct control over the behaviour and which can be rectified. At the very heart of our Circle of Influence is our ability to make and keep commitments and promises. The commitments we make to ourselves and to others, and our integrity to those commitments is the most evident manifestation of our proactivity.

In the end being proactive will only do good for us. We should try to imbibe proactivity as a way of life to make our life hassle-free and productive.