Proactivity untold. Either you do it or you don't. Simple!.

Victor frankl once said:

    

"Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom."

He was a survivor of the Nazi death camps. He lost all his friends and family members to the deathpits; daughter, wife and all. He lost everything and was nothing. You should read the biography, it is one of the best I have ever read. It changed my life and believe me it will change your life.

But the funny thing was that Victor didn't give up and let the camp take everything from him. You are wondering right? Is he not in prison with all his loved ones dead, what else can be live for? Nothing right!  nothing can be farther from the truth . 

He did grieve for a while. Wallowing in self pity and condemnation and all but waiting for death to end it all but there in his dark creepy cell while waiting for death he found out a beautiful thing. A wonderful thing and this phenomenon have been used by millions since then it's discovery to achieve success, maintain happiness and effectiveness.

What did he find: it's simple, It is what he called the last human freedom. He believed right there is a space between STIMULUS (that is: what happens to us) and RESPONSE (that is: what happens in us that determines how we react). And he believed that we have the underlying power to choose our response in whatever situation that happens to us..

He decided that the Nazi's can hurt him but they could not take away his happiness. Whenever the stimulus of bad environment and treatment come upon him, instead of being REACTIVE and reacting to this stimulus by being pathetic and wallowing in self pity. Instead he decided to choose his response and be happy. He ended up having more freedom than his captors because they can't hurt him. HE WONT LET THEM!!!

He decide to be happy and he was. He believed he would make it out of there and he did. Written in his biography, it was said he even helped his captors and other inmates in achieving happiness.

He called this phenomenon PROACTIVITY. The ability to choose one's own response in every situation. He believed that if you decide to be Confident in every situation, you will be confident. If you decide to be fearful, you will be fearful and if you decide to be happy you will be. You can't choose what happens to you but you can always choose what happens in you! You can choose your response in every situation. Take it from me, I believe too. It's all about our choice.

Am sharing this with you today because I believe this can be of great value to you in achieving success and happiness which is what this blog is all about. By developing our self awareness we can be proactive. Do you think it hard?  No of course not. It's actually simple because proactivity is just an habit. And any HABIT can be adopted over time and the old one buried deep and forgotten.

By striving to think about your response to every stimulus, you can develop and become proactive. Stop thinking about what others think every time you make a decision and make a decision that you really want to make. You probably sometimes go around in our day activities striving to please others, you totally forget about pleasing your own conscience and end up pleasing others but not yourself .
A great man once said:
     "the most unhappy man is one that always thinks about others opinion of him".

It's just plain wrong trying to please others because they can be all wrong and you may be right, but by doing what they think is right, you end up giving up your freedom and receiving what you deserve: UNHAPPINESS.

Starting from today, I strongly advice you to adopt this habit. Practice choosing your response in every situation. Practice this everyday until it becomes an habit. Remember it's an habit, it may take time but by being determined you can do it. Yes you can..

You might want to read " 7 habit of highly effective people " and Victor Frank biography. You will learn a lot more about being proactive.