Be proactive.
We had this speaker last week, Dr. Jay Kaplan, and he showed this “readiness to change” slide. You’re supposed to measure yourself on this scale - from “I love change” to “I hate change”. I’ve always prided myself on being open to change of any sort or color. “I’m Mr. Change!” Dr. Kaplan said the same about himself until his wife corrected him. “You hate change - you only like change if it’s your idea”. He said she was right. Ugh. Me too. If I can’t completely control the change - then it’s not for me.
I looked up the definition of “proactive” and the dictionary said “controlling a situation by causing something to happen rather than responding to it after it has happened”. Control. I like to be proactive because I can reduce the number of variables prior to the event that I have no say in. (I said last week in an exercise on what we need to fix in our life that I say “um” too much, and then I realized it was because I didn’t want other people to interrupt me … control)
Being proactive is good; being prepared is great. I know that if I allow my need for control to pounce on a situation and control for every single possibility - I will suck the fun out completely. If I think about and anticipate potential obstacles and prepare myself proactively, I may be pleasantly surprised by the outcome. And I might grow and expand as a human.
Being proactive with a heavy dose of grace and humility.
