Question

In a minimum of 500 words, describe 5 ways that you can be proactive in your own life.What negative cycles can you break in order to become more proactive as a student?Please use specific examples to support your answers.

Answer 1

1. Being proactive refers to an individual’s ability to realize that they are an active player in their own life and that they have the capacity to change their future if they take charge of it. It is the opposite of learned helplessness wherein an individual learns to give up in the face of challenges. A proactive person believes in themselves, knows his or her goals, and does not wait for deadlines to complete the task.

Five ways to become more proactive:

i. Realizing that you are in control of your life situations to a large extent- The most important realization is that you know you can make decisions regarding your life with your own free will. It means you do not wait or rely on fate or destiny to unfold before you take action. You learn to take responsibility and go after what you desire by taking small steps towards the direction of your goal.

ii. Imagination along with action – In order to take action, it is very important to have a vision and idea of what you want from life. If you don’t have the clarity of what you seek, the actions taken will be purposeless. On the contrary, only visualizing and imagining will not take you anywhere unless it is accompanied by strategically planned action.

iii. Self-discipline- It is important to know your goals and work towards them proactively but without self-discipline it will not be effective. It means knowing that you have to sacrifice short-term pleasures in order to attain your long-term important goals. It also means you are consistent, persevering and strong in your conviction.

iv. Strategic goal setting- Setting unrealistic goals and having no strategy to go after them can cause you to become stuck. It can be helpful to use the SMART goal setting strategy. This strategy helps you set systematic, measurable, attainable, realistic goals which can be attained have specific time deadline.

v. Try new activities/hobbies- Another way to become more proactive in life is by not limiting yourself to one subject or hobby. In order to really understand what your purpose is, what you like or dislike, and what you want to spend your energy on, you must have some fair idea about what life has to offer. Trying out new activities in your area of interest, meeting people of the same interest or networking with mentors can help you become more proactive.

2. Nobody comes into this life perfect and certainly not proactive. Becoming proactive is a learning process which becomes refined over the years with practice and intention. We learn to perceive life through conscious and unconscious teachings given by our parents and relatives when we are children. Sometimes we learn to believe that life circumstances are beyond our control and we take a passive role in our own lives. Sometimes trauma can also result in formation of such a belief system. This is perhaps the biggest negative pattern one has to learn to break in order to become proactive. One needs to realize that they are in charge of their life and can direct it towards a positive direction through free will.