1) Principle of Proactivity

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1 1) Principle of Proactivity Principle of proactivity teaches us that we can influence our life to a much greater extend than we usually think. It even states that we are the cause of majority of things that happen to us in our lives, and we do so by our everyday decision-making. There are always solutions and I can find them.

2 I have learned to use the word "impossible" only very carefully. W. Braun I am the only person who can change my life. Whether you think you can or can't do something, you are always right. H. Ford

3 Circles of Focus and infuence One part of the sum of information existing in our surrounding world, are things we are interested in but practically we can't influence them. These belong to the Circle of Concern. Things we can influence directly or indirectly, consciously or unconsciously are in the Circle of Influence. The very centre of this circle is called the Centre of Focus, i.e. where we consciously head.

4 Our past faults and mistakes belong to the circle of interest

5 It is more natural for a human being to act than to be manipulated. Formally, we usually agree. But For many people it is much more comfortable to wait to be made doing something = they are avoiding their own responsibility.

6 Reactive people Our behaviour and thinking shows if we are reactive = trying to solve problems within our circle of concern. We enlarge the circle and worry about things we can't change. This weakens us and we don't have enough strength for things we can influence (in those cases we feel manipulated by the environment and situations which seem to determine how we feel in our lives. We also usually blame someone or something outside us for our feelings).

7 Beeing proactive, we are mostly in our circle of influence. When we are used to concentrating on things we can change, our influence on our environment grows and so do we. We accept responsibility for what happens to us, or at least our response to it (because that is fully in our circle of influence). The difference is represented by our freedom and responsibility.

8 Determinism Most of us have been brought up in the paradigm of determinism: Genetic (It's not my fault, my grandfather was like that etc.) Mental (It's not my fault, that's how I was brought up, mum always used to say that I am etc) Environmental (It's not my fault, that's the environment, I was born here. And it's not possible here, because )

9 This paradigm teaches us that after each stimulus S there is a reaction R. It is the famous Pavlov's theory of conditioned reflexes, which describes our most basic tendencies, i.e. how we react without thinking. S R The deterministic paradigm comes from the study of animals (dogs, rats and pigeons) and neurotic and psychotic people, who can only learn with the help of these reactions. But those people can't take full responsibility for their own development. A master is responsible for training his or her dog.

10 C. Castaneda Decision-Making Choice of Response Human beings are subject to their process of development, and that can quite significantly determine what they can be influenced by in their lives. Things don't change. Only you look at them from a different angle.

11 Between stimulus and response there is our greatest power the Freedom to Choose. The size of the gap between the two determines is the measure of our freedom.

12 Every healthy human being is equipped with a unique human quality: Self-Awareness that allows him or her to perceive themselves and their situation as if standing outside themselves. It also allows space for a freedom, which we have however bad the situation we are in is. Beside Self-Awareness there are other unique human qualities - Imagination allowing our mind to perceive even situations that haven't occurred in real world, Conscience, which gives us primary criteria for rightness of what we do, and Independent Will allowing us to act upon our decisions.

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14 Response (R) to Stimulus (S) has higher quality than a reaction because it follows consideration. Freedom to choose allows us to be proactive, = to make a responsible decision based on knowledge of situations.

15 As subjects of our own development we are responsible for our lives! We have a unique chance to learn from our own experience as well as from the experience of other people. We can learn from mistakes or truths realized by others. This has to go hand in hand with our own rational and emotional experience and truthful understanding. We can always choose our attitude to things. By this we verify our system of values.

16 Experience Experience is not what has happened to us But what we have done with it. A. Huxley

17 Our life values are of three kind Experiential (based on what we have seen and experienced) Creative (based on what we've done and created) Attitudinal (based on what we've overcome, managed, what was our response like in various situations)

18 Proactivity is crucial to us if we want to manage anybody or anything, (especially ourselves). A good indicator of our thinking is our language.