 7 Habits -Part 1
Habit 1 : Be Proactive
Your life is carefully designed by you. The choices, after all, are yours. You choose happiness. you choose sadness. Just remember that every moment, every situation, provides a new choice. And in doing so, it gives you a perfect opportunity to do things differently to produce more positive results.
Be Proactive is about taking responsibility for your life. You can't keep blaming everything on your parents or grandparents. Proactive people recognize that they are "response-able." They don't blame genetics, circumstances, conditions, or conditioning for their behavior. They know they choose their behavior. Reactive people, on the other hand, are often affected by their physical environment. They find external sources to blame for their behavior. If the weather is good, they feel good. If it isn't, it affects their attitude and performance, and they blame the weather. All of these external forces act as stimuli that we respond to. Between the stimulus and the response is your greatest power--you have the freedom to choose your response. one of the most important things you choose is what you say. Your language is a good indicator of how you see yourself. A proactive person uses proactive language--I can, I will, I prefer, etc. A reactive person uses reactive language--I can't, I have to, if only. Reactive people believe they are not responsible for what they say and do--they have no choice.
Instead of reacting to or worrying about conditions over which they have little or no control, proactive people focus their time and energy on things they can control. The problems, challenges, and opportunities we face fall into two areas--Circle of Concern and Circle of Influence.
Proactive people focus their efforts on their Circle of Influence. They work on the things they can do something about: health, children, problems at work. Reactive people focus their efforts in the Circle of Concern--things over which they have little or no control: the national debt, terrorism, the weather. Gaining an awareness of the areas in which we expend our energies in is a giant step in becoming proactive.
Being proactive means taking conscious control over your life, setting goals and working to achieve them. Instead of reacting to events and waiting for opportunities, you go out and create your own events and opportunities. Being proactive means that instead of merely reacting to events as they happen, you consciously engineer your own events.
Steve Covey points out that there’s a gap between stimulus and response, and within that gap lies the potential for us to choose our response. Four special human endowments give us this power:
Self-awareness - the understanding that you do have a choice between stimulus and response. If someone insults you, you can choose not to become angry. If you are offered a donut, you can choose not to eat it.
Conscience - the ability to consult your inner compass to decide what is right for you. You can make decisions based on unchanging principles, regardless of what is socially favored at the moment.
Creative Imagination - the ability to visualize alternative responses. By using your imagination, you can mentally generate and evaluate different options.
Independent Will - You have the freedom to choose your own unique response. You aren’t forced to conform to what others expect from you.
Where is the industry going? [Where shall I go next, and how will I get there?]
I don’t have time to exercise. [How shall I make time to exercise?]
How much money can I expect to make if I do X? [How much money do I want to make, and what will I do to earn it?]
I’ll try it and see what happens. [I’ll do it.]
I’m too tired. [What can I do to increase my energy?]
I’ve never been very good at math. [How can I improve my math skills and enjoy the process?]
Nothing really inspires me. [What would I tackle if I knew I couldn’t fail?]
What is the meaning of life? [What is the meaning I wish to give to my life?] | 
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