How To Become A Proactive Person [PDF]

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HAROLD TAYLOR

HOW TO BECOME A PROACTIVE PERSON THE 7 HABITS OF PROACTIVE PEOPLE

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How to Become a Proactive Person: The 7 Habits of Proactive People 1st edition © 2020 Harold Taylor & bookboon.com ISBN 978-87-403-3476-0

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HOW TO BECOME A PROACTIVE PERSON

Contents

CONTENTS

About the author

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Introduction

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1

How proactive are you?

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1.1

Determine your proactivity quotient

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1.2

Proactivity self-evaluation instrument

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2 What it means to be proactive

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2.1

Proactive vs. Reactive

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2.2

Do not get behind in your work

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2.3

“Before” beats “after” every time

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3 Example of a proactive approach

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3.1

Being proactive when seeking employment

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3.2

Networking can further your career

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3.3

Networking is more than a job-seeking tool

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Habits of proactive people

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4.1

What makes a person proactive?

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4.2 Habit # 1: prepare for all future events, projects, and tasks

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4.3

Preparing requires planning

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4.4

The mental walk-through

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5 Habit # 2: keep ahead of your commitments

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5.1

Catch up and get ahead

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5.2

Build an inventory of completed work

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5.3

Develop your own system

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5.4

The “work ahead” concept

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6 Habit # 3: do not wait, anticipate

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6.1

Anticipate your needs

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6.2

Anticipate what your customers will need

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6.3

Anticipate what your boss will need

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6.4

Anticipate what your employees need

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6.5

Anticipate what your equipment will need

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6.6

Anticipate what you need personally

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7 Habit # 4: take control of your time

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7.1

Stay on top of your job

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7.2

Those who think ahead get ahead

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HOW TO BECOME A PROACTIVE PERSON

Contents

7.3

Proactivity defeats procrastination

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7.4

Keep it simple

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7.5

Take the initiative

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8 Habit # 5: improve your power of recall

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8.1

How memory works

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8.2

Remembering the future

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8.3

Memory influences proactivity

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8.4 Memory techniques that capture the experiences of your past

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8.5

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How to boost your recall

9 Habit # 6: enhance your life with value-added experiences

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9.1

The greater the input, the greater the output

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9.2

Seek variety in your life

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9.3

Read as much as possible

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9.4

Let your mind wander

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9.5

Engage in lifelong learning

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9.6

Build and maintain relationships

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10 Habit #7: maintain a proactive attitude

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10.1

Develop a proactive mindset

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10.2

Patience and proactivity go hand in hand

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10.3

Build resilience

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10.4

Positive thinking always leads to positive doing.

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Books referenced in “how to become a proactive person”

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HOW TO BECOME A PROACTIVE PERSON

About the author

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Harold Taylor, currently owner of TaylorInTime, has been speaking, writing, and conducting training programs on the topic of effective time management for over 40 years. He has written over 20 books, including a Canadian bestseller, Making Time Work for You, originally published in 1981. He has developed over 50 time management products that have sold in 38 countries around the world. His time management newsletter, now in electronic format, has been published for over the thirty-five years and he has had over 250 articles accepted for publication in various magazines. A past director of the National Association of Professional Organizers, Harold received their Founder’s Award in 1999 for outstanding contributions to the organizing profession. He received CSP (Certified Speaking Professional) designation in 1987 from the National Speakers Association. In 1998 the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers inducted him into the Canadian Speaking Hall of Fame. And in 2001, he received the Founder’s Award from the Professional Organizers in Canada. The award has been renamed the Harold Taylor Award in his honor. Prior to his speaking and writing career, Harold held management positions in industry for twelve years at Canadian Johns Manville and American-Standard and was a teaching master in the business division of Humber College in Toronto for eight years. He has been an entrepreneur for over forty years, incorporating four companies during that time. His first company, Harold Taylor Enterprises Ltd., established in 1967, was a multiple association management company that also published four magazines and a line of greeting cards, and sponsored public seminars and management training programs. Since 1981, when he incorporated the time management company, Harold Taylor Time Consultants Inc., he has personally presented over 2000 workshops, speeches, and keynotes on the topic of time and life management. Harold lives in Sussex, New Brunswick, Canada. He writes e-books for Bookboon.com (35 to date), publishes a weekly blog article at his website (also posted on Facebook & Twitter), a free quarterly time management newsletter for his 2000 plus subscribers, sends out regular tweets, and speaks to seniors and other groups on “growing older without growing old” in addition to “time and life management.” His website is www.taylorintime.com.

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HOW TO BECOME A PROACTIVE PERSON

Introduction

INTRODUCTION Not only has our work environment changed during the past decade or so, our work habits have changed as well. Just because technology now allows us to work any place at any time, does not mean we have to do so. If you choose to be available 24/7, you will lead a hectic life with little chance of keeping up with your full-time job. We tell people how to treat us by how we manage our time. If we send business emails on Sunday, we will receive emails on Sunday in turn. If we answer our business phone after normal working hours, we will receive phone calls after working hours, and so on. We can get more accomplished, not by working longer hours, but by being selective and focused during the hours we have decided or contracted to work. Whether you work for someone else or are self-employed, it is essential to balance your “work” time and your “personal” time. Make sure your expectations line up with the expectations of the company. Does the company measure your performance by the number of hours you put in or by the results you achieve? Successful companies measure performance by the latter, and that is the kind of company I would rather work for. Management by results involves having targets of performance. These targets could be such things as volume of sales, number of subscribers, quality measurements, employee turnover or whatever, depending on your position in the company and the nature of the business. Seldom would you have targets based on the number of hours worked in a week, the amount of overtime you can put in, the quantity of emails handled in the evenings and so on. Many people work for companies that value and measure results; but feel they must work longer hours to achieve those results. That is not the fault of the company if the expectations are reasonable. It is the fault of the workers by not managing their time well. It is a simple case of not keeping on top of the job during the hours allocated to the job. There are many strategies that you can use to manage your time effectively, including getting organized, delegation, focus, the use of technology and so on. But the most important one, the one discussed in this book, is being proactive. By being proactive, you cannot only avoid working overtime and playing the “catch up” game all the time, you can actually keep ahead of your job as well – and lead a balanced life in the process. This book will show you how to become a proactive person and provides many examples along the way.

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HOW TO BECOME A PROACTIVE PERSON

How proactive are you?

1 HOW PROACTIVE ARE YOU? 1.1 DETERMINE YOUR PROACTIVITY QUOTIENT Perhaps you are proactive already. If so, you could skip this book and read one of my other books that discuss other strategies that also impact the management of time. These include goal setting, planning, and scheduling, procrastination, delegation, getting organized, and so on, and are all available on the Bookboon website. In the meantime, take the following test to determine the current extent of your proactivity. If you score low, be sure to read the following chapters carefully and put as many of the suggested strategies as possible into practice. I suggest you do not skip this self-evaluation instrument since it may prompt ideas or new perspectives on how you might become even more proactive than you are now. In fact, I believe there is something in this book for everyone, regardless of their score.

1.2 PROACTIVITY SELF-EVALUATION INSTRUMENT For each of the first 18 statements, assign the following points for your answers. Always – 3 Sometimes – 2 Seldom – 1 Never - 0 1. I am on time for meetings.

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2. I organize my work area before I leave work.

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3. I keep a weekly “To do” list rather than, or in addition to, a daily “To do” list.

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4. I schedule the important activities and tasks at a specific time in my planner.

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5. I put deadlines on all my planned tasks and activities.

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6. I finish projects and tasks before they are due.

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7. I leave work by the normal quitting time.

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8. As soon as I learn of the dates of events I plan to attend, I mark them in my planning calendar.

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9. The work I do is important and relates to company goals.

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5. I put deadlines on all my planned tasks and activities.

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6. I finish projects and tasks before they are due.

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HOW TO BECOME A PROACTIVE PERSON

7. I leave work by the normal quitting time.

How proactive are you?

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8. As soon as I learn of the dates of events I plan to attend, I mark them in my planning calendar.

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9. The work I do is important and relates to company goals.

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10. I am happy with the hours I currently work.

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11. At night I prepare what I will need for the next morning, including the clothes I will wear the next morning.

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12. I mentally walk through upcoming activities such as presentations, networking events, conferences, training sessions and so on.

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13. I book hotel rooms, car rentals etc. well ahead when I travel.

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14. I prepare checklists for coming events for which I am responsible.

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15. Before I leave work in the afternoon, I confirm what I will be working on the next day.

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16. I take notes at all meetings and enter into my planning calendar any actions requiring my attention.

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17. I have personal goals as well as business goals, both in writing.

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18. When an unanticipated problem occurs, I take action to see if such a problem can be prevented in the future.

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For each of the last 18 statements, assign the following points for your answers. Always – 0 Sometimes – 1 Seldom – 2 Never - 3

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HOW TO BECOME A PROACTIVE PERSON

How proactive are you?

19. I do company work on personal time.

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20. I answer business emails after work and on weekends.

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21. I work on Sundays and holidays.

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22. When I am working on a project I am interrupted.

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23. The tasks are urgent by the time I work on them.

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24. I have trouble focusing on my work.

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25. I have trouble saying no even when I am busy.

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26. Other people say I am spending too much time at work.

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27. I forget birthdays of family members, relatives, and friends.

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28. I run out of supplies such as computer cartridges, printing paper, pens etc.

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29. I forget functions and activities that I intend to attend.

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30. My backlog of work is overdue & would take over two hours to complete.

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31. I hate my job.

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32. I fail to put my goals in writing.

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33. I struggle to stay on top of things and find myself playing catch-up.

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34. I wait until problems occur before I take action to address the underlying causes.

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35. I feel overwhelmed by all the things I must do.

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36. I procrastinate on unpleasant or difficult tasks.

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Total points obtained for all 36 statements

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108 is a “perfect” score, which is unrealistic. 0 is a complete failure, 60 is a pass, and 75 is good. The higher your score, the more proactive you seem to be. Regardless of your score, you will improve if you take heed of the information in the following chapters. You will also recognize why the points were assigned as they were.

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HOW TO BECOME A PROACTIVE PERSON

What it means to be proactive

2 WHAT IT MEANS TO BE PROACTIVE 2.1 PROACTIVE VS. REACTIVE Proactive means “acting beforehand.” By taking action in the present, proactive people assure themselves that things will go smoothly in the future, perhaps even changing the future itself. Proactive people are always looking ahead at future activities, projects and events and anticipating needs, problems, and possible outcomes. They are future-oriented, setting and achieving goals, and viewing deadlines as helpful milestones, not stressful hindrances. Proactive people are excellent time managers, because they are future-oriented, setting specific goals for every meeting and event, setting deadlines on all tasks, and scheduling time in their planners to work on the important, goal-oriented tasks and activities. They seldom appear rushed or stressed since they always allow more time than they think the activities will take, and they allow for interruptions and unforeseeable crises. “Proactivity is both an aptitude and an attitude. It is a way of doing and a way of thinking, which, when combined, become a way of being. “ – Chrissy Scivicque, author, The Proactive Professional

Reactive people, on the other hand, act in response to a situation rather than creating or controlling it. They are usually disorganized since they never have time to develop systems or routines for filing paperwork and electronic documents. They waste time searching for things, shuffling papers, and following up with others. And they do not have the luxury of setting distant deadlines on tasks and projects. Everything is rush, rush. They do not have the option of scheduling priority tasks for specific times in the future, because they are too busy dealing with the present. They are captive to the tyranny of the urgent. Reactive people are problem solvers rather than problem avoiders. They wait for things to happen and then jump into action. Many of them feel they work better under stress, and seem to enjoy the adrenaline rush as the “fight or flight” body reaction kicks in. But stress eventually takes its toll, and health problems frequently add to their productivity problems. Proactive people, on the other hand, not only set deadlines for all priority tasks and projects, they aim to finish these commitments well before the deadlines.

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What it means to be proactive

I see proactivity as continually dipping one mental foot into the future while the other foot remains firmly planted in the present. Seldom should you have to take a backward step except to retrieve a lesson from the past. Everything you do now, everything you say, every person you hire or promote will have an impact on the future. So, keeping one foot in the future refers to considering the impact of something before you do it. Think before you act. Never make snap decisions unless it is a crisis. “Being proactive is the foundation of the other habits of highly effective people.” – Stephen R Covey.

2.2 DO NOT GET BEHIND IN YOUR WORK If you get behind in any of your work, all your work will suffer. When you are in a time bind, every interruption, every additional request or even a coffee break becomes a stressor. Things left undone themselves become a source of stress. Regardless of some people’s claim, we do not work better under stress; we simply work faster. And speed in turn produces errors and omissions. If you are not proactive, your job, and the tasks and activities that it includes, will control you rather than the other way around. You become so busy fighting fires, reacting to the demands of others, solving problems that should never have occurred, playing “catch-up,” and making amends for missed meetings, forgotten commitments and late assignments that you get even further behind. Proactive people, on the other hand, not only set deadlines for all priority tasks and projects, they aim to finish these commitments well before the deadlines. This is a habit you should develop – keeping one step ahead on many of the jobs that will have to be done in the future. This will be covered in chapter five. Proactive people do not often wait for things to happen; they make things happen. They foresee consequences, risks, and opportunities and act to anticipate and change the expected course of events. They feel in control, and confident in taking the initiative when a procedure needs changing, a goal needs adjusting or a task needs doing. Proactivity becomes a mindset that not only avoids needless work down the road but can avoid time-consuming problems as well. “Good planning always costs less than good reacting.” – Wayne Schmidt.

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What it means to be proactive

2.3 “BEFORE” BEATS “AFTER” EVERY TIME Proactive people would not think of making a telephone call without first jotting down the items for discussion or going to the supermarket without first making a list of the items they need. They do not resent looking at a map before taking a trip or googling a prospect’s website before making a cold sales call or reading the instructions before assembling a swing set. They negotiate an assignment’s deadline before they take on the task, confirm the next day’s work before they leave the office, and think about its impact on their work and family before volunteering to serve on a committee. They make sure they are clear on the company’s mission and policies before setting goals, check what is available on the market before selecting a planning calendar and prioritize their workload before scheduling the individual tasks in their planner. In the next chapter we will discuss an example of how a proactive person might use this “before rather than after” approach in the case of a person seeking employment.

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Example of a proactive approach

3 EXAMPLE OF A PROACTIVE APPROACH 3.1 BEING PROACTIVE WHEN SEEKING EMPLOYMENT Most people use a reactive rather than a proactive approach to finding employment. They wait until the jobs are advertised in the newspapers or online or on bulletin boards, and then apply for the positions that appeal to them. And they must compete with everyone else who is looking for a job. The odds are against them. Regardless of their qualifications, most never reach the interview stage where important qualifications such as personality, enthusiasm, integrity, attitude and so on are revealed for the first time. Compare that to a proactive approach where you might apply for a position before it is advertised or even available. If you were a proactive person you would probably start looking for a job even before you needed one. Do not wait until you graduate from college. Or if you are currently employed and hear rumours of downsizing or layoffs, do not wait until it happens. If you are in a dead-end job or dissatisfied with the work, environment, people or pay, do not wait until the stress makes you ill or forces you to quit. “You cannot change what you have done, only what you are going to do.” – Suze Orman

Take a proactive approach and identify the companies you would like to work for, research these companies, determine how you could be a valuable asset to them in your area of expertise and approach the hiring managers before any jobs are advertised. Who is your competition now? Have the odds of gaining appropriate employment increased any?

3.2 NETWORKING CAN FURTHER YOUR CAREER Networking is being proactive. 70 percent of all jobs, for instance, are not found from answering want ads or sending out resources, but by networking. Most of the people that I have hired during my lifetime were from referrals from other people who knew I was looking for someone with specific qualifications. Purposeful networking is an effective strategy to help you get a job, further your career or expand your business. Those who do not have a networking plan are seriously limiting their potential for success. It is a proactive activity that not only benefits you in the present but safeguards your future as well.

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Example of a proactive approach

The more people you meet through networking, the more effective you will become. You meet a lot of people simply by going about our daily routine. But you should also have a plan. What type of company would you like to work for, and which specific companies appeal to you? If you do not know, find out. Being proactive is not any easier than pounding the pavement, knocking on doors. It is simply more effective. The results you get are normally in proportion to the effort you put into the search. Assume you are seeking a position in quality control at the management level with a company such as 3M. That should be specific enough. And remember you can always change your plan or modify your focus. But if you have nothing to aim at, you will probably have the results to match. Google the companies, scan the newspapers for articles about them, and visit their websites. Become familiar with their products, mission statements, community involvements and so on. Pay special attention to anything you discover about quality control in the company or companies you are targeting. Do this to the extent that if you met people from that company today, you would be able to carry on an intelligent conversation with them. “Do nothing and nothing happens. Do something, and something happens. “ – Benjamin Franklin

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Example of a proactive approach

To start with you should immediately join two associations, - a peer group, whose interests match your own (which in your case would be a professional association such as the American Society for Quality,) and one whose members represent your target market (such as your local Chamber of Commerce or Association of Women Executives,) where executives from those companies would attend. If your target market is small business owners. you might join the local chamber of commerce or board of trade or an association of entrepreneurs. Check to make sure the executives of your target companies belong to the associations you choose. It does not have to be a job that you are after. You could be looking for new customers, increased sales, business growth, expert advice, or whatever. In any case, joining the associations is not enough. You must attend their monthly meetings and other functions as often as possible. The more visible you are, the more contacts you will make and the more chance you have of gaining employment or referral business or help with an existing business. Do not join too many associations. You simply will not have the time to network properly. There is little reward for having your name listed in a membership roster. When you join these associations, get involved if possible. I have owned an association management company where we managed dozens of associations, and all of them were constantly seeking volunteers. Officers and committee members are on networking’s inside track when it comes to opportunities, whether that involves a career, information, product promotion, company growth or simply expanding your network for future use. You do not need a specific reason right now for networking. It is also a proactive person’s insurance policy for the future, and a great way to make friends and expand your horizons. “Know the value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it.” – Lord Chesterfield

The more you network, the easier it becomes. Have plenty of business cards and one-page resumes. And memorize an “elevator speech” – a brief description of your specialty skills, experience, intentions, and unique value proposition. When someone asks what you do, simply say you are currently unemployed, if that happens to be the case, and explain what type of job you are looking for. Or you could set yourself up as an independent consultant temporarily. Keep your elevator speech less than 30 seconds in length, but include the name of a couple of companies you have worked for, the specific skills that you offer, and the benefit of these skills to your target market. And rehearse it; because you never know when you may need it.

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Example of a proactive approach

Make up a few folders, which I refer to as “Press Kits.” containing detailed resumes, copies of certificates from courses you have completed, articles you may have written for a company newsletter, referrals, major accomplishments – anything that highlights your experience, expertise, accomplishments, awards, education and so on.

3.3 NETWORKING IS MORE THAN A JOB-SEEKING TOOL The above suggestions apply to anyone seeking a change of careers, promoting a product or service, creating new markets or whatever. And there are plenty of other business activities you could attend, such as business mixers, conferences, trade shows and new business openings. Arrive at every meeting a little early so you meet people as they arrive. Overcome your reluctance to start up a conversation. I realize that some people are more extroverted than others, but you can overcome any fear simply by realizing that they are just as anxious to talk to you. The more you network, the easier it becomes. And networking requires a proactive approach.

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Habits of proactive people

4 HABITS OF PROACTIVE PEOPLE 4.1 WHAT MAKES A PERSON PROACTIVE? Proactive people have developed seven habits that distinguish them from other, less proactive people. The habits are listed below and will be discussed in greater detail in this and the following chapters. 1. They 2. They 3. They 4. They 5. They 6. They 7. They

prepare for all future events, projects, and tasks. keep ahead of their commitments. do not wait, they anticipate. take control of their time. improve their power or recall. enhance their lives with value-added experiences. maintain a proactive attitude.

4.2 HABIT # 1: PREPARE FOR ALL FUTURE EVENTS, PROJECTS, AND TASKS The first step in preparing for future events is to make sure that you will have time in the future to attend the event or complete the scheduled task. The moment you make a commitment of any kind, you must block off the time in your planning calendar to fulfill the commitment. Surprisingly, most people simply make a note of the event or activity or task to be completed, along with the date. Procrastination, last minute cancellations, rescheduled activities, are all usually due to the failure at the time that you make the commitment to ensure there will enough time available for the event. “A schedule defends from chaos and whim.” – Anne Dillard, Pulitzer Prize winner.

If it is a task to be completed, use your planning calendar, and block off enough time to complete the task plus an additional 20% or more. I allow 50%, because invariably I would underestimate the time it would take or the interruptions that I would have to contend with at that time. If travel time is needed as well, allow for it. Then, as you mentally walk through the future event, as described later, jot down what you will need to complete the event, task, or activity. If you need to order something, invite people, or download information, do it at that time, or at least well before the event. And be sure to have a follow up file, carton, or whatever is needed, appropriately labeled, to house the material. 18

HOW TO BECOME A PROACTIVE PERSON

Habits of proactive people

Meetings are good examples of time wasted due to a lack of preparation. People may have the time scheduled, and yet have neglected to read the reports in advance or review the agenda items to determine whether they need to prepare or do anything in advance of the meeting. And you cannot leave these things until the day of the meeting.

4.3 PREPARING REQUIRES PLANNING Just as there are standing plans that can be used repeatedly, there are also standing checklists that can be used for repetitive events such as sales calls, seminars, meetings, conferences, and so on. You should make up a checklist of things you need to do or bring to the event - one checklist for each event. Be sure to house the checklist in a follow up file to review a day or two before the event. “A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow.” – George S. Patton

A networking checklist might list such items as business cards, company brochures, press kits, client lists and so on. What are the items you wish that you had brought along the last time? Copies of your unique value statement? A copy of your elevator speech for review? Those promotional pens? Add them to your checklist.

4.4 THE MENTAL WALK-THROUGH If proactive people will be attending a conference in a different city, they go beyond actually booking air travel, arranging ground transportation, and booking a hotel room. In their imagination they mentally walk through the three days of events, deciding in advance what they will wear at the various functions, which presentations they will attend, and who they will seek out to maximize their networking opportunities. In the process, they might decide that they will need business cards, writing materials, an empty carry-on bag to house the information that they will be collecting at the exhibits and casual clothes for the Saturday night barbecue.

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Habits of proactive people

In their pocket or purse they carry a marked envelope in which deposit their various receipts, and an expense form that they fill out during spare moments in their hotel room. It is no accident that a proactive people always seem to have a spare pen to loan, a safety pin to offer, a Band-Aid or pain killer when someone’s in distress and shampoo when there’s none in the hotel room. These are the people you turn to when you need a hair dryer or a list of meeting rooms or change for the hotel vending machine. They are also the people who are frequently selected as project managers, management trainees and group leaders. They are organized, punctual and productive – and respected by their managers and peers alike. The day goes so much easier when you keep on top of your work. These practices can be developed and nurtured until they become habits. Practice with little things, such as deciding before going to bed what clothes you will be wearing the next morning. You may discover that something needs pressing. In the morning, mentally walk through the day. What time will you leave the house, where will you park, what jobs will you do first etc. The more times you think ahead, the more comfortable you will become with planning. As you see your days running smoother, with fewer crises and problems, the more you will be encouraged to become proactive in everything you do.

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Habit # 2: keep ahead of your commitments

5 HABIT # 2: KEEP AHEAD OF YOUR COMMITMENTS 5.1 CATCH UP AND GET AHEAD If you get behind in any of your work, all your work will suffer. When you are in a time bind, every interruption, every additional request or even a coffee break becomes a stressor. Things left undone themselves become a source of stress. Regardless of some people’s claim, we do not work better under stress; we simply work faster. And speed in turn produces errors and omissions. If you are not proactive, your job, and the tasks and activities that it includes, will control you rather than the other way around. You become so busy fighting fires, reacting to the demands of others, solving problems that should never have occurred, playing “catch-up,” and making amends for missed meetings, forgotten commitments and late assignments that you get even further behind. Proactive people, however, not only set deadlines for all priority tasks and projects, they aim to finish these commitments well before the deadlines. This is a habit you should develop – keeping one step ahead on many of the jobs that will have to be done in the future. When I suggest negotiating deadlines on assignments given to you, I mean even those with seemingly realistic deadlines attached. Managers usually ask for things to be completed before they really need them. That is how they became managers. They are being proactive by allowing for the unpredictable. What you are doing is negotiating away some of that extra time for your own use. Except that you do not use it unless it is essential. You aim for the minimum time and look great when you finish early. “Being on top of your work gives you a great sense of energy and flow. Being behind causes stress and results in exhaustion, burnout and depression.” – Mark Forster, author, Secrets of Productive People.

“Just-in-time” might be a great strategy for inventory control, but not for tasks or projects. And by applying the proper strategies you can do better than just keeping on top of your job; you can keep ahead of your job as well.

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Habit # 2: keep ahead of your commitments

These strategies include negotiating deadlines and then scheduling enough time each day or each week to complete the assignments early. It will not only make you more productive, it will build your reputation as well. Deadlines are a definite productivity aid. For a detailed discussion on how to manage deadlines, refer to my book, Making Deadlines Work for You, published by Bookboon.

5.2 BUILD AN INVENTORY OF COMPLETED WORK When you have repetitive commitments, and most people do, there is an excellent opportunity to not only keep up with your work, but to get ahead of it. Do you have monthly reports to prepare? Weekly meetings to attend? Articles to write? Books to read? List all the tasks you are committed to do on a regular basis. For example, I write a column for a local newspaper every two weeks, post an article on my time management blog every week, issue a newsletter every quarter, purchase supplies as needed, and so on. “Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned.” – Peter Marshall

Many times in the past I have been under stress writing an article at the last minute, searching for items to include in my newsletter, or trying to think of a topic, let alone doing the writing for a column due the next day. But since I started being more proactive, these situations are rare. What you must do is build an inventory of material that you can draw upon when needed. You do this by using the short segments of time that you get when you finish a task ahead of deadline, or find yourself traveling by train or waiting for a virtual meeting to start or standing in line at a grocery store or whenever. There are plenty of wasted minutes they can be redeemed if you are prepared to take advantage of them. The largest chunks of time I get available are those times when I take less time for the important task than had been scheduled in my planner.

5.3 DEVELOP YOUR OWN SYSTEM I always try to keep about three blog articles, two column articles, and enough material for one complete newsletter ahead. They are the items that used to cause me most of my grief. Some weeks are worse than others, and there is not always time to work ahead on

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Habit # 2: keep ahead of your commitments

certain projects. Those are the times I am most thankful that I have an inventory of work to draw on. You can decide what your safety factor should be, but I do not think you can ever have too much. Newsletter material can be used for articles or a blog and vice versa. There is more information on how to inventory these items in my book, How to Keep on Top of your Job, published by Bookboon, but your tasks will be different than mine so use whatever works for you.

5.4 THE “WORK AHEAD” CONCEPT This habit of working ahead on major tasks also works well with the smaller daily items that occur, such as meetings, telephone calls, e-mail messages, office inventory, and so on. For example, if you must take the minutes at meetings, working from the agenda you can write up at least half of the information based on your experiences in all those past meetings. It is difficult to listen and make notes at the same time, especially if more than one person is talking at the same time. It would be easier if you drew up a skeleton outline of your minutes ahead of time, complete with names of those present, time convened and adjourned, and boilerplate material, such as “After considerable discussion it was moved byy_________ , seconded byy_________ , that we proceed with the inventory on June 15th as planned. You can always change the odd word, cross off or add to your version of what you think will occur. “Most of the successful people I have known are the ones who do more listening than talking.” – Bernard Baruch

Before you make a phone call you can jot down the items you want to discuss so you will not forget anything. When you receive a phone call you can make notes on a pad of forms, entering who called, the time, items discussed, action required, and date the action is completed. You could use text replacement software when writing e-mail messages, so you do not have to keep typing the same complex and technical words when referring to your product lines or typing the same paragraph in most emails. Even the numbering cartons of office supplies, stacking them in reverse order on the shelves, and reordering when you reach number 2, would ensure you never run out of ink toner, computer paper, felt pens, or whatever. These are all examples of the “work ahead” concept of being proactive by keeping ahead of your commitments. The more you do this, the more it becomes a habit, and you will find that you are questioning most tasks and activities to determine whether there is a better way of doing them.

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Habit # 3: do not wait, anticipate

6 HABIT # 3: DO NOT WAIT, ANTICIPATE 6.1 ANTICIPATE YOUR NEEDS Proactive people anticipate the future needs of themselves and others. For example, if you write articles, books, or business reports, you anticipate that the reader will want to know the reliability of your information, and where you got it, so you include references and a bibliography, and links to sources when appropriate. If you sponsor a webinar at a specific time, you anticipate the participants will want to know what the time will be in your time zone, so you make it easier for them by including a link to a world time zone converter. If you are a publisher you might anticipate that your international authors might want to know what their royalties are in their own currency, so you include a link to a currency converter. If you are a service employee, you anticipate that a caller will want to know when you will be available, so you leave that information on your voice mail message or direct them to someone else if it is an urgent matter, and so on. Here are some specific examples of anticipating the needs of others. “Brands and individuals who offer radically superior customer service stand out because they anticipate unexpressed needs or wishes.” – Carmine Gallo, Leadership Strategy.

6.2 ANTICIPATE WHAT YOUR CUSTOMERS WILL NEED We know, for instance that one thing customers need is service, and if you do not they will go elsewhere. A study conducted by the Research Institute of America found that 90% of customers who are dissatisfied with the service they receive will not come back again. They also found that only 4% of unhappy customers ever bother to complain, yet each unhappy customer tells his or her story to an average of nine other people. According to eMarketer, it costs five to ten times as much to find a new customer as it does to retain an existing one. Loyal customers are more profitable to your business because they usually buy more of your products and services, are less sensitive to price, and often refer other clients to you.

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Habit # 3: do not wait, anticipate

You might do a mental walk-through, visualizing yourself as the customer. How would you like to be treated? I know I like to be greeted with a smile and a willingness to help, not someone who is transferring their bad hair day onto me. It is important to keep in contact with past customers, offer guarantees, and provide fast service. Building loyal clients is an important part of any marketing strategy. You do this by earning their respect and demonstrating a sincere concern for their well-being. Deliver more than you promise. This requires that you respect their time. Another thing we can anticipate is that people do not want to be kept waiting. If you are a professional or operate a business where the customer comes to you, a certain amount of waiting cannot be avoided – especially in the case of doctors, lawyers, accountants and so on. But research shows that customers perceive waiting time to be less if there are signs to read in your waiting room – or anything else that will keep them occupied. Always have something to read such as current magazines and signs as well as Wi-Fi. If appropriate, TV and a play area with toys for kids would also be a plus. “Genuine emergencies are rare. Errors of anticipation are legion.” – The Art of Time

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Habit # 3: do not wait, anticipate

Waiting time also seems shorter if customers have someone to talk to. Paco Underhill, in his book “Why we buy,” recommends taking care of the customer within two minutes. This is not always possible; but any waiting without contact over a minute and a half creates time distortion in the minds of the customers. Time waiting after initial contact seems to go faster than the same amount of time spent waiting before the interaction. So, acknowledging that the customer is waiting tends to relieve time anxiety. It is a good idea to acknowledge the customer when they first arrive and at least every five minutes thereafter. Even giving the customer an estimate of the waiting time is better than nothing. Underhill claims that being told the wait would be about two minutes makes the actual four- or five-minute wait go faster. In a supermarket or in some retail store situations, a single line leading to the cashiers ensures that people are served in turn. And impulse items placed where the line forms, not only distracts from the wait, but is also smart merchandising. Customers hate waiting in line, and stores with long line-ups at the check-outs frequently encounter abandoned carts containing merchandise.

6.3 ANTICIPATE WHAT YOUR BOSS WILL NEED For one thing, your boss does not need more problems, he or she needs solutions. So, whenever you encounter a problem, think about it before dumping the problem on the boss. Bring some suggested solutions along with you. You will become a lot more valuable to both your boss and the organization. Bosses need people who help them succeed in their current job, and get promotions in the future, which helps you get promoted in turn. You can help both the boss and you by anticipating their needs. They need assignments completed early, not late, goals achieved, new ideas proposed, and information provided without being asked. They need you to volunteer to assume portions of their jobs. They need you to improve your skills and knowledge and be ready to assume their position at any time. They need you to be proactive. “Plan in advance how a job should be done, and it is half done.” – Henry Kaiser

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Habit # 3: do not wait, anticipate

6.4 ANTICIPATE WHAT YOUR EMPLOYEES NEED The biggest needs of most employees is to be listened to, understood, kept informed, receive feedback on their performance, have their efforts acknowledged, and made to feel like they have important roles in the success of the organization. You will know your employee’s specific needs as you communicate with them on an ongoing basis, and during your performance reviews. Goals, procedures, policies all help them to be proactive in their jobs. Some managers have brief daily stand-up meetings with their staff to make sure everyone is on the right track, roughly know one another’s plan for the day, have an opportunity to get clarification on anything that might hinder the day’s progress, and are able to minimize any interruptions during the day.

6.5 ANTICIPATE WHAT YOUR EQUIPMENT WILL NEED Preventive maintenance is maintenance that is regularly performed on each piece of equipment while it is still in good working order so that it is less likely to break down in the immediate future. In the manufacturing companies I worked, these dates were chosen based on the suppliers’ recommendations, past experiences, and the experiences of other companies. In some cases, it could be just educated guesses. But it is a lot less expensive to be proactive with preventive maintenance than having a breakdown in the middle of a production run.

6.6 ANTICIPATE WHAT YOU NEED PERSONALLY Similarly, we have preventive health care, or proactive health care, to prevent our bodies’ equipment from breaking down. That is why it is recommended that we exercise regularly, eat well, get adequate sleep and so on. For example, it is better that you are proactive rather than wait to be reactive to the symptoms of a flu virus. By boosting your immune system with vitamin C and antioxidants, drink plenty of fluids follow recommended hygiene protocol, and so on you are practicing proactive healthcare. Almost everyone recognizes the wisdom in proactive health care, as we participate in vaccinations, regular screenings for cancer, tests for dementia and whatever, and yet most of us fail to apply the same principle to our work and careers. In fact, Chrissy Scivicque claimed in her book, The Proactive Professional, that when she researched proactivity, she learned that most people wait for life to happen to them and then react to it. We should all keep one foot in the future. And by that I do not simply mean trying to predict what will happen in the future and preparing for it, but by creating the future you would like to live. You do this by setting and achieving goals on an ongoing basis. 27

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Habit # 4: take control of your time

7 HABIT # 4: TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR TIME 7.1 STAY ON TOP OF YOUR JOB We are healthier and happier and more productive when we feel that we are on top of our jobs. When you are on top of things, you feel confident, unstressed, and in control. If you are not in control, you will feel stressed and disorganized. If you are reactive, your job and the tasks and activities it includes, will control you rather than the other way around. You become so busy fighting fires, reacting to the demands of others, solving problems that should never have occurred, and making amends for missed meetings, forgotten commitments and late assignments, that you get even further behind. You will have insufficient time for planning, innovating, and delegating. If you are a business owner, you will be working in the business instead of on the business. “Nothing is so fatiguing as the hanging on of an uncompleted task.” – William James.

7.2 THOSE WHO THINK AHEAD GET AHEAD Those who think ahead seldom get behind. And thinking ahead involves setting personal and organizational goals. By setting goals and scheduling the goal-related activities in your planner, you are determining in advance how you will be spending the bulk of your time. There is no one best way to set goals. I described one or two goal setting procedures in my book, Develop a Goal-setting Mindset, published by Bookboon. As far as my latest small business was concerned, I had a simple system where I would ask myself, “If I only had time to achieve one thing this year that would improve my company’s success, what would it be?” I would do some solo brainstorming, choose one idea and write it down. Then I would ask, “If I had more time, what would I choose as number two?” And so on, until I had selected five or six goals, and then I would stop. Do not take on too much.

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I would write those goals in the front of my planning calendar, along with deadline dates. And then block off time each week to work on these goal-related activities. That was my one big overriding goal - spend time each week working on a goal related activity. If you spend even a little time each week working on a goal, it will get done. The key is to block off the time in advance, be proactive, and follow through on your commitments. Working exclusively from a To do list is being present oriented. Working from a planner is future oriented. In the latter case, you are assigning future time, not just present time, to the various tasks that must be done. By allocating future time to tasks, you know how much time will still be available for other tasks and activities. You are able to prioritize when you work from a To do list, but the tendency is to do the urgent items first, regardless of their importance. And there are so many urgent items, you continually delay the important ones that are not yet urgent. “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” – Aristotle

One of the problems with that approach is that some of the things you want to do are delayed forever. You may want to write a book to gain credibility and multiply your income as a professional speaker for example. Or convert your website to e-Commerce and increase your income by selling online. Or develop a new product that everyone agrees would be a top seller. But those things are not urgent, and the time to work on them is not yet available because there are so many urgent items that must be done first - items that simply help you continue with the status quo. Many great ideas are abandoned simply because people do not have the time to work on them. The main reason that people lose control of their time is their tendency to be reactive, not proactive. When you are reactive, you allow circumstances to control you, rather than the other way around. You must take control of your time and block off future time for the important activities that will achieve your goals. Do not sacrifice what you want most for those urgent tasks that continue to consume your time. You cannot control your time by using a To do list. There is no commitment in a To do list. You would never add “Attend a meeting tomorrow,” on a To do list. You would mark it in a planning calendar such as on February the 14th from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM. Use the same planner to block off times to work on your personal goals as well. Time to write, think and do. Keep those commitments. Forget about working on urgent items that have little impact on the success of the company. Say “no” to most requests that would do nothing to further your goals. Time is too valuable a resource to waste on trivial things.

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7.3 PROACTIVITY DEFEATS PROCRASTINATION People do not procrastinate on important work by doing nothing; they simply do other things instead. If they have other things to do that are more pleasant and easier to do than those important, goal-related tasks, they have an excuse to delay those more difficult tasks. After all, they cannot do everything. And they have a brain that is always looking to conserve energy and take the path of least resistance. “When opportunity comes, it is too late to prepare.” – John Wooden

But if they can keep on top of their jobs – or ahead of them as illustrated earlier – by being proactive, they have no excuse for delaying those important tasks. And since the proactive approach includes goal setting, deadlines, and breaking those larger tasks into smaller chunks and working on them a little at a time, they no longer seem so overwhelming. Proactivity and procrastination cannot both exist at the same time. They are mutually exclusive.

7.4 KEEP IT SIMPLE To have enough time to work ahead and build up an inventory of completed work, it is essential that you do not waste time on trivial tasks. This involves saying “no” to others as well as to yourself. Work on those important tasks that will achieve your goals, align with your personal policies, and further your purpose in life. According to the Pareto Principle or 80/20 Rule, 20% of the activities managers are involved in produce 80% of the results, and priority should be focused on those valuable 20% rather than giving equal attention to everything. Also, attention should be focused on the important items, not the urgent (unless those urgent activities and tasks are equally important.) This is discussed in detail in my book, Accomplish More by Doing Less, published by Bookboon. People tend to get carried away or sidetracked when Googling for information as well. People probably need only 20% of the material they download, 20% of the material they read, and are continually distracted by pop-up ads and superfluous information. It may be interesting information but learn to say no to the good so you can say yes to the best.

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Habit # 4: take control of your time

7.5 TAKE THE INITIATIVE If you know what should be done and you have the authority to make the decision, do so. Do not leave it up to someone else or spread the responsibility by deciding by committee, or even consulting with others. Proactive people are confident in their decisions and take the lead when action is required. For example, when their boss is unavailable, a proactive person does not hesitate to decide on their behalf and will be prepared to defend that decision. Proactive people take the initiative when a thank you, or acknowledgement is called for. They take the initiative when someone needs help, or an emergency occurs, or there is work to be done. Reactive people want to be told, but proactive people initiate. “Initiative is doing the right thing without being told.” – Victor Hugo

People who take the initiative usually save time for themselves and others. With the technology available today, they would not hesitate to look something up on the Internet rather than interrupt someone to ask for help. It not only saves time but increases their knowledge. Initiate means “to begin.” People who initiate action can never be accused of procrastination.

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HOW TO BECOME A PROACTIVE PERSON

Habit # 5: improve your power of recall

8 HABIT # 5: IMPROVE YOUR POWER OF RECALL 8.1 HOW MEMORY WORKS Jeff Brown and Mark Fenske describe how our memory works in their book, The Winner’s Brain. At about 18 months, toddlers learn and retain the meaning of up to 10 words per day, and by the time they reach adulthood, most recognize at least 60,000 words. Plus, hundreds of thousands of other experiences and skills like driving, meeting their spouse for the first time, playing tennis, or whatever. The information or memory is stored in different places in their brain. What they see goes to the visual cortex in the occipital lobe. What they hear goes to the auditory cortex in the temporal lobe. What they taste goes to the insular-opercular cortex, and so on. Then they are all rerouted to the other neural destinations as their brain works to recognize and evaluate the incoming information. It takes a fraction of a second. “Memory’s most important function is to help you make predictions about the future so you can make accurate conclusions about how best to achieve your goals.” – The Winner’s Brain

The structure that weaves these memory traces into a unified experience is the hippocampus, which in turn works with other regions, such as the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex to evaluate the importance of incoming information. Data they do not need is deleted and relevant data are consolidated into long-term storage for future use. You have an amazing brain. Whenever you focus on, what impresses you most and you deem important, is retained. The memory is influenced by your mood, surroundings, and other circumstances. You encode memories more strongly when you are in a highly emotional state or it is unusual what has significant meaning, or you are playing close attention to it. You remember what you really want to remember, and soon forget the rest. That is one reason multitasking works against memory and mindfulness works in its favour. You can influence the memory every time you recall it, so it can be a little different each time you remember it. Therefore, the first recall is the most accurate one. But what does all this have to do with being proactive?

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Habit # 5: improve your power of recall

8.2 REMEMBERING THE FUTURE Research has shown that the same regions of the brain that are used for planning new events are used for remembering past events. If projecting ourselves into the future requires the same brain circuitry as we use to recall information from the past, it makes sense that improving our recall will help us be more proactive. We use our memories from the past when we travel forward in our minds to predict how people will react to various alternatives that we might be considering. Episodic memory – the sequential recollection of personal events from the past are drawn upon when we plan. In fact, it was also found that the reverse is true as well. Students’ memories worked best when they planned.

8.3 MEMORY INFLUENCES PROACTIVITY The brain relies on memory to imagine, simulate, and predict possible future events. Studies show that imagining the future depends as much on the same neural machinery that is needed for remembering the past. Assuming this is true, practicing memory improvement techniques will also strengthen your ability to be proactive. “We rely on our memories to envision the future.” – Carl Zimmer, author, The Tangled Bank

Harvard Medical School researcher Moshe Bar, as well as other researchers, claimed that even straightforward memory functions like memorizing a grocery list can be improved by using a proactive approach. By reading the list over a few times before entering the store, you are priming your brain. As you walk up the aisles, the items on your list will stand out on the shelves, and you will eliminate a lot of searching and backtracking. I refer to this as sensitizing your mind. For example, I have found that if I want to write a book on a certain topic, and I think about the topic, and make notes about the information I should include, during my daily routine, almost miraculously, I come across articles, blogs, magazines, and so on that address these topics. It is similar to the experience of buying a car, complete with visits to dealerships, negotiating on price, taking a test run in the specific car, model, colour etc. that you want, and after finally making the purchase, noticing a dozen or more identical vehicles on the way home. And you thought it was a unique selection!

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Habit # 5: improve your power of recall

In the example of the grocery list referred to above, as I read the items on the list, I also visualize where the items would be located in the store and say them out loud in that order. I can pick up each item in that order as I walk the aisles. You must be familiar with the supermarket to do this, but I shop at the same store most of the time. The more you visualize the future, the more proactive you will become. The past, present, and future are all connected, and although you can only be physically in one of them at any one time, you can mentally participate in all three. “You tend to encode memories more strongly when you are in a highly emotional state, it has significant meaning, it’s really unusual, or you’re paying close attention.” – Jeff Brown & Mark Fenske.

8.4 MEMORY TECHNIQUES THAT CAPTURE THE EXPERIENCES OF YOUR PAST You are the sum of your remembered experiences. The more experiences you have, the more information your brain can call upon to predict what will probably happen in the future by taking different actions in the present. But your brain must retain and be able to recall those experiences, lessons, and information from the past to do so. If an experience is emotional, dramatic, unusual, significance or unique, you will probably retain, and recall it easily. But for most of what we learn, see, hear, do, or experience, this is not the case. Ask any student trying to recall facts and figures at exam time, and he or she will tell you that all memories are not created equal, and that you must be intentional and focused when you study something in order to recall it on demand.

8.5 HOW TO BOOST YOUR RECALL My eBook, Boost your Memory and Sharpen your Mind, published by Bookboon.com, covers this topic in detail, but here are a few of the more important ways of improving your recall of items committed to memory. • Associate new information with information that you already know and can recall easily. • Always understand any information before committing it to memory.

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Habit # 5: improve your power of recall

• Make up a brief story, implanting the new information you wish to remember. The brain loves and remembers stories. • Make up a rhyme or jingle that incorporates the new information, such as “30 days has September, April, June, and November.” • Make up an acronym of the key words you want to remember. Example: for the Great Lakes that border Canada and the USA, the word HOMES represents Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior. • Recall the information in the same location in which you memorized it, if possible. • Periodically review information that you have memorized. • When memorizing anything, whether a list of names, facts, procedures, or skills, visualize them in your mind. • Use body language as you memorize, gesturing as you proceed. Movement assists the memory and recall processes. “The acts of learning and memory retrieval will strengthen your cognitive skills and get you into the reason brainset.” – Shelley Carson, author, Your Creative Brain.

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HABIT # 6: ENHANCE YOUR LIFE WITH VALUE-ADDED EXPERIENCES

HOW TO BECOME A PROACTIVE PERSON

9 HABIT # 6: ENHANCE YOUR LIFE WITH VALUEADDED EXPERIENCES 9.1 THE GREATER THE INPUT, THE GREATER THE OUTPUT As discussed in the last chapter, information from your past is called upon for decisionmaking, creativity and problem solving in the future. Your brain can call on past experiences, learned knowledge, effective habits, activities, and so on to prepare for, predict, and perform in the future. So, the more information and variety of experiences in your past, the more useful these memories become in increasing your proactivity. We are all born proactive to varying degrees; that is one of the traits of humans. But it is always possible to improve your performance. Here are some suggestions that will increase the bank of information that your brain will have at its disposal.

9.2 SEEK VARIETY IN YOUR LIFE Not only does a broad range of interests and skills make you a more interesting person, it increases your creativity as well. Your brain needs variety to make the usual connections that lead to innovative ideas. There is little sense in thinking outside the box if there is nothing outside the box. Do not simply go deeper into your own specialty, whether that is management, technology, or whatever. Take special interest courses and develop hobbies that have nothing to do with your profession. Do not make your only hobby collecting butterflies if you are an entomologist. “The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.” – Mark Twain

9.3 READ AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE Most people are strapped for time, but it is essential that you make time for reading on a variety of topics. In 2016, Yale researchers collected data from 3600 men and women over fifty, discovering that people who read books for thirty minutes a day or more were living an average of two years longer than non-readers.

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HOW TO BECOME A PROACTIVE PERSON

Reading, especially those business books and other nonfiction books that stimulate the brain even more, is believed to improve memory as well. The reason given was that it increased their empathy and emotional intelligence, improving their social skills, which in turn led to an increase in social interaction with others and ultimately lowered stress levels. They also mentioned the advantage of improving vocabulary and exercising the brain, which both have a positive impact on the brain. It is a good way of increasing cognitive reserve since it is an integral part of lifelong learning. At the same time, you must be careful not to waste much time reading non-essential material online that is irrelevant to your job, interests, or purpose. As indicated by the 80/20 Rule, you probably need only 20% of the information you take in to make 80% of the decisions you will have to make or problems you will have to solve.

9.4 LET YOUR MIND WANDER This may seem a strange suggestion when we are talking about increased productivity, memory, and being proactive in the same chapter, but we must give our brain a little time to make connections and be creative. Brown and Fenske, writing in the Harvard Business Review, maintain that we should give ourselves periods of uninterrupted thought during which we let our mind wander since it gives the brain’s memory system extra time to recombine our prior experiences in ways that can help us envision future possibilities. “Associations provide the vehicle for memory encoding and retrieval, but they are also proposed to serve as the building blocks of predictions.” – Moshe Bar

We dream up our most creative future projects, not while running between meetings, but while leaning back in our chair contemplating the ceiling tiles or sipping a coffee in the cafeteria. And it’s amazing how many times that thoughts come to you about things you have to do to prepare for tomorrow’s meeting while you are thinking about something else – or trying not to think at all. Give your proactive brain time to do its thing.

9.5 ENGAGE IN LIFELONG LEARNING Never be satisfied with a formal education. The real learning starts upon graduation. The usefulness of the information you receive before and after graduation is directly proportional to the number of years you spend in the workforce. I believe this, because knowledge is

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HOW TO BECOME A PROACTIVE PERSON

meant to be applied, not just remembered. Knowledge becomes wisdom when it is combined with practical experience and life’s lessons. And as you grow older, it even helps protect you from dementia and improves your quality of life. Lifelong learning not only adds valuable information for later recall, the forced thinking exercises the brain, grows neurons, and increases neural connections. Lifelong learning could delay the onset of cognitive impairment by 3 to 8 years. Our chance of developing Alzheimer’s drops 17% for every year of education beyond high school, according to John Ratey, in his book, Go wild: free yourself from the afflictions of civilization. “Teachability is the ability and willingness to learn and put into practice whatever is needed to accomplish your goals.” – John C Maxwell.

You do not have to go back to school or take courses to keep learning. You can also do it by reading newspapers, listening to audio recordings, keeping up to date with world events, discussing current events with friends at McDonald’s, and so on. But courses, seminars, conferences, and workshops provide the opportunity to network, interact with others, and build relationships as well. Proactive people are not idle observers. They are active participants in all areas of their lives, whether that is in school, at work, at home or away. Take responsibility for your own life. Do not wait for others to make it better.

9.6 BUILD AND MAINTAIN RELATIONSHIPS Mayo Clinic staff maintain that friendships can have a major impact on your health and well-being, reducing the risk of high blood pressure, and an unhealthy body mass index. And an article in the January 2018 issue of Prevention Guide claims that socializing, even online, keeps your cells from aging too fast. Staying socially engaged affects your cognitive functioning as well. And research by Sheldon Cohen of Carnegie Mellon University indicates that the more social connections you have, the greater your ability to fight infection. Relationships also improve your mental health, boosting your happiness, reducing stress, and improving your self-confidence and self-worth. People with strong social support have a reduced risk of depression, and an increased sense of belonging and purpose.

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HABIT # 6: ENHANCE YOUR LIFE WITH VALUE-ADDED EXPERIENCES

HOW TO BECOME A PROACTIVE PERSON

People also tend to live longer than those with fewer connections. Data collected from Brigham Young University showed that people with active social lives were 50% less likely to die of any cause than their non-social counterparts. Low levels of social interaction have the same effects as smoking 15 cigarettes a day – and even worse effects than being obese or not exercising. Besides networking, discussed earlier, you can meet people and build relationships by volunteering, attending community events, joining a church, working out at a gym, and going to places where other people gather. It only remains to be proactive by reaching out to others. Introduce yourself, initiate the conversation, exchange business cards if appropriate, and follow-up if you with an invitation for coffee later if your interests seem to be mutual.

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Habit #7: maintain a proactive attitude

10 HABIT #7: MAINTAIN A PROACTIVE ATTITUDE 10.1 DEVELOP A PROACTIVE MINDSET You must approach each day with a proactive mindset. This includes reviewing the accomplishments of yesterday, achieving the plans for today, and confirming your goals for tomorrow, all the while making sure you stay on target for the year. “Being proactive means anticipating what might happen, planning ahead, preparing in advance and acting ahead instead of just reacting to circumstances.” – Duncan Muguku

You can quickly get into the habit of being proactive by starting with the small, but timeconsuming things that you encounter on a regular basis. For example, income tax time is frequently stressful and time consuming because of the last-minute searching for back-up materials for the various deductions allowed. Tax time should not be viewed as a onetime event consuming hours or days of your time, but a year-long process that produces an organized collection of everything the CPA or you need to file the returns. Whether hard copy or digital, it takes only minutes to prepare folders for the various income and expense items that you receive throughout the year. For example, two sets of folders, one for personal and the other for business to house copies of various receipts as they occur would be a proactive approach for an entrepreneur and save a lot of time and grief in the future. Filling the car’s gas tank when it’s convenient rather than when it’s empty, keeping an inventory of greeting cards, sorted into categories, before you need them, and updating your resume quarterly even though you are happily employed are all examples of being proactive. Getting into the habit of small things like these can build the larger habits of always starting to plan a repetitive event as soon as the last one has ended, booking speakers for your meetings at least two meetings ahead, and managing stress before it becomes a problem. Be patient. You cannot become a proactive person overnight. But when you do, you will be in the minority, and a valuable asset to any company and in any job.

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HOW TO BECOME A PROACTIVE PERSON

Habit #7: maintain a proactive attitude

10.2 PATIENCE AND PROACTIVITY GO HAND IN HAND Patience is the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset. Everything worthwhile takes time. The best things seem to come to those who are willing to wait. Patience allows you to be persistent because you do not expect everything to happen overnight. You no longer see 10-year goals as unrealistic. You realize that time passes quickly, and you are not putting your life on hold in the meantime. You are continually setting and achieving short-term goals for the year, month, and week. Some things cannot be rushed, and impatient people pass up great opportunities simply because it would take too long to accomplish them. I recall as a youngster getting a fulltime job at a supermarket after graduation from high school despite my older brother’s urging to go to university and get a degree. “You will go a lot further a lot faster with a degree,” he told me. My reply was “But it takes four years to get a degree. By the time I get a degree I will be 24 years old! His reply? “Well you will be 24 years old anyway, won’t you?” It took a year for his answer to sink in, but I finally realized he was right. Would I rather be 24 years old with a degree, or 24 years old without a degree? The same thinking what apply if you are 50 and thinking of starting up in business, or 70 and thinking about getting a degree in physics. Would you rather be older with or without something you wish you had done earlier? “Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you would have preferred to talk.” – Doug Larson, columnist.

Time passes regardless of what you are doing. So, you might as well be doing something that pays the greatest return on your invested time. Do what you need to do, and keep doing it, sacrificing those immediate benefits that you want now, to obtain the major benefits that you want the most.

10.3 BUILD RESILIENCE Resilience is the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties. It allows you to bounce back from adversity. Building resilience also involves learning to look at criticism as something constructive that can help you to improve even more. Resilient people see problems as things to overcome and anticipate that they will occur along the way. They can avoid most of these problems because they are proactive. But they are not been discouraged or overwhelmed when they do occur. Proactivity does not stop all problems from occurring. There are things that happen unexpectedly that are impossible to predict or avoid. But patience will allow you to tolerate it until it is resolved, and a positive attitude will help you to solve it. 41

HOW TO BECOME A PROACTIVE PERSON

Habit #7: maintain a proactive attitude

10.4 POSITIVE THINKING ALWAYS LEADS TO POSITIVE DOING. Do not let the bad days impact your future days. This can happen if you dwell on them. The longer you think about a mishap, error, or negative outcome of any kind, you cement it into your long-term memory, and it will emerge to negatively impact your future events, decisions, and outcomes. Remember that your brain uses memories when making future decisions. Look at every failure as a lesson learned rather than an opportunity lost, and your future opportunities will lead to success. “Where success is concerned, people are not measured in inches, or pounds, or college degrees, or family background. They are measured by the size of their thinking.” – David Schwartz

As John Maxwell says in his book, Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn, “Knowledge may come from study, but wisdom comes from learning and improving in the wake of your mistakes.” And management guru Peter Drucker, claimed, “I would never promote a person into a higher-level job who was not making mistakes … otherwise he is sure to be mediocre.” If your expectations are low, so will be your personal productivity. There is a definite connection between body and brain that we can use to alter our mood, attitude, and behaviour. So, engage the body as well as the mind to develop a positive attitude. Not only think positive thoughts but act out positive thoughts by tackling tasks you previously though you were unable to do. Express positive thoughts in your conversations, write positive thoughts in a journal, or e-mail messages to your friends. Surround yourself with positive people. The more you think, act, speak write, experience, and share positive things, the more quickly your brain will get the message that positivity is important for your survival. And you will become a positive person. “If you want to be ready to meet whatever challenges you are going to face on a given day, and learn from them, you need to be prepared.That means working in advance – every day.” – John C Maxwell

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BOOKS REFERENCED IN “HOW TO BECOME A PROACTIVE PERSON”

HOW TO BECOME A PROACTIVE PERSON

BOOKS REFERENCED IN “HOW TO BECOME A PROACTIVE PERSON” Brown, Jeff, et al. The Winners Brain: 8 Strategies Great Minds Use to Achieve Success. Da Capo Lifelong, 2011. Maxwell, John C. Sometimes You Win - Sometimes You Learn: Life’s Greatest Lessons Are Gained from Our Losses. Center Street, 2015. Scivicque, Chrissy. The Proactive Professional: How to Stop Playing Catch up and Start Getting Ahead at Work (and in Life!). CCS Ventures, 2016. Underhill, Paco. Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping. Simon & Schuster Pbks., 2009.

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