In his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey says that the first habit to be highly effective is being proactive. We’ve all heard about the benefits of proactivity, but we don’t always put it into action. This might be because we often don’t have any idea how to be proactive. We think that proactivity merely means anticipating things and being prepared for them or doing things without being asked to do them. However, this is not all that proactivity means.
Proactivity is an attitude that we can adopt which will enable us to go far, in business and in life. And basically what it means is that we have to stop complaining about things and do something about them.
What Do You Complain About?
Now, complaining is a basic human trait. We all do it to some extent or the other. Some people complain more while others complain less. However, you don’t have to start feeling bad about the fact that you’re complaining. Instead, pay attention to what you’re complaining about.
- Do you feel that you’re not being paid enough?
- Do you feel that you don’t have enough time to get through everything that you’re supposed to do in a day?
- Do you feel overworked?
- Do you feel like you’re not getting what you want out of your personal life? (Because proactivity works in every area of life).
These are some of the things that people complain about.
What Can You Do About This Problem?
Now sit down and think about how to solve that problem. Every solution that you come up with might not be the best one. But if you try out a few ways to solve your problem, you will eventually come up with something. For example, if you feel overworked, think about ways to lighten your load.
- You don’t have to do everything that’s dumped in your lap. You can speak to your supervisor about the problem you’re having and see if some of the tasks coming your way can be given to someone else.
- Or you can delegate things to your assistant after training him/her in what to do.
- Or you can just come up with ways to be more efficient in your work. Maybe this can be done by finishing off the laborious tasks first thing in the morning so that you can focus on the lighter stuff later on.
Either way, there is some solution to your problem out there, and you’re not going to achieve it by complaining about it. You’ll achieve it by being proactive i.e., coming up with solutions and putting them into action.