I am a great believer in luck, and the harder I work the more I have it. — Thomas Jefferson, US President (1801-9)
Have you ever considered why some of your goals are not achieved? If not, it is not too late to consider a retrospect.
I still remember times without number when I thought of winning the game in some areas without success. I have always dreamt of having a personal business, giving myself a time frame for its achievement. For instance, during my National Youth Service, I had a project in mind for the rural scholars with a plan of actions and documents for approval already prepared, but without accomplishment. I also flagged off a research business after the idea gained from a colleague with an online platform to sell the idea. A client latter called for patronage and arranged for a meeting with one of her business partner. The only thing I did was meeting with the person. I can’t remember whether I did a follow-up.
That’s how it is with many people. Ideas come, the champion started doing some paperwork but, along the line, a missing link came into light. The dream began to fade away. The fact is, we fail to see ahead of the wall standing very tall, preparing to find a way to walk around it at the shortest time possible. When this is the case, we eventually get to the obstacle amazed about its massiveness. These can drain the morale to get such obstacle removed. What if there are several of them?
A professional’s success is not without paying the price of ‘looking, thinking and acting ahead, asking what’s next. How will I get this done within a timeframe? If you ever think ahead on the cloth to wear for your job interview or an upcoming event, then you should not find it difficult to be proactive. You won’t want to fail. But if the reverse is the case with you, you don’t need to ask a question on why you have failed many times. You should not reap where you’ve not sown.
If you weren’t so good at what your job, the luck wouldn’t happen — Richard Templar
The word, proactive by word-formation, has ‘pro’, as in ‘professional’ and ‘active’. This can be interpreted as a professional is active. The professional is full of activities, always doing something – diligent and focused. The word can also be interpreted to mean pro-activity. That is activity before other activities. It follows that getting results cannot be possible without some preliminary events or activities. If you go ahead with a project without some ‘behind the scene’ activities, you shouldn’t expect any result. If you achieve anything, it must be by chance. Never expect this all the time.
Read also: Proactive, Organised & Relevant
The ability to look, think and act ahead, for things not to go out of control is what you need to succeed whether you are working for a client or engaging in formalities for personal development. When some negative issues cropped up, there are things you must do, and when you eventually come out, you can’t avoid preventing their occurrences in the future. If your calculation is right, you can easily say, ‘this event is likely to occur at a particular time or stage in the life of a project, and do something to promote or prevent as necessary.
The following tips will generally apply to demonstrate your proactive attributes:
Predict
Don’t be caught by surprise. Be forward-looking. Learn to foresee future problems and events and how or what form they are likely to occur. Some might be following similar pattern during a period or when some characteristics are prevalent. However, note that the past may not always tell us about the future accurately. Also, the past may not always be the same, but certain events that look alike can be classified together, thereby coming up with scenarios. That is, what if things go the other way, what will happen? Note that experience and historical records, lesson learn session outputs and similar sources of information may be appropriate tools to employ.
Prevent/Promote
When there are obstacles or negatives, the best thing is to work against their occurrence or make them opportunities from which you can benefit. On the other hand, optimistic courses of actions must be promoted/ strengthened to get better results but after a careful evaluation of the options available. Don’t get stuck when you’re doing this. Your eyes must be opened wide and see obstacles before you reach where they are and work against them.
See also: Step Out, We’re Together
Plan
There is hardly anything that can be done successfully without some levels of plan. “Avoid one-step, ‘here and now’ thinking and instead, look ahead and anticipate long-term consequences” You can arrive at the best decision when you evaluate interconnected and interrelated events collectively to see how they will influence one another to achieve the final goal. Know where you’ve been, where you are, and where you are heading. Never think of doing everything accidentally.
Participate
You can’t be idle. You can’t delegate, employ people and not doing something yourself. Take the initiative. Don’t be afraid to act before you encounter challenges. Be part of the results. Work on achieving your dream and aspiration even if others will join along the way. Let obstacles find you are doing something to remove them. Find your way out of them or turning them to opportunity.
Perform
It has noted that being proactive means taking timely and effective action. Take careful and thoughtful steps along the appropriate path. Don’t react to the environment, decide early and do something now. Be consistent in your action. Don’t expect the best result every time. Be ready to improve on yourself. Connect with the people that will drive your achievements and be one yourself.
Conclusively, do you want to achieve a sale target, implement a personal growth plan, plant at a particular season of the year, go for a mission trip or to be contesting a future election? Are you at a junction and needed to take a quick decision? Think of doing something different. You need to prepare ahead how to get going to prevent failure. Think of the pros and cons of your decision and eventual actions. Be calm and exercise caution because the cost of a rash decision may be higher than doing nothing.
Do make your thoughts known in the comments section and remember to share with someone. Let’s do it together.
ThePro 