7 Habits of Highly Effective People Entry #1

This blog was created as an assignment for my Choral Conducting class where we have recently read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. We have been assigned to write 3 entries pertaining to the book, so here goes entry #1:

In reading this book, I have come across many different ideas that I could write about just in the first Habit, Be Proactive, but I will try to focus on just one.

A concept that really attracted my attention while reading the first Habit was "reactive." I think I have a tremendous tendency to be a reactive person as opposed to a proactive person. While being proactive means that WE have responsibility of our own lives, reactive is quite the opposite. I've always mindlessly thought that I automatically have responsibility of my own life because, well, I am me. It's that simple. Because I exist, I control myself. NOT TRUE!! I allow so many different things to control me. Weather, friends, teachers, grades, parents, illness, and many more things have influences on me and are capable of controling me! I have come to realize how I am so easily influenced by many outward issues, but I don't have to allow them to!

For instance, today as I write this entry, the weather is WARM, (finally..it's been freezing for days...) the sun is out, and it is Friday! Thus, I have a very very good attitude about life. However, if it were rainy, 35 degrees, and Monday, I would most likely have a very different attitude. This kind of thinking, as I've recently learned, is reactive and NOT what I want to be. I have a power that I've always consiously known was there, but I've hardly ever put it to practice.

I've also discovered that my language often falls into the reactive category... "This is too hard! I'm not capable! I'm not even going to try to accomplish that. He's so annoying!" All of these expressions may be the likely reaction to a certain situation, but ultimately I have the power to decide otherwise. I've let people and situations control me. If only I can get out of this rut and convince myself that I have the power to resist the temptation to listen to others opinions; then I would finally be the proactive individual I want to be.

Being proactive has become a new goal of mine, and hopefully whenever I begin to experience a rainy situation in my life I'll be able to take advantage of the situation to prove to myself that I have the power to choose.