Years ago, I sat through an 8-hour Franklin-Covey course designed to help me manage my time better. It worked and I’ve been using that system ever since. In preparation for that class, I had to read the entire 7 Habits book. It has been a very effective tool in my life, even though I haven’t visited with it since.

This week I had the opportunity to review the book in a summary format. I couldn’t get enough of the article. It took me three days to get through it and my notes are extensive. This time, with about 13 years of experience under my belt since the last time we met, I would like to take each habit and work on them individually, incorporating the advice given in Mastery. While realizing that I won’t perfect these habits in this life, keeping them in my memory and bringing them more into focus within my daily activities will help me to get closer to perfecting them.

The one that stood out to me the most, and the one I’m going to work on first, is the first one: Be proactive. I didn’t choose this one purely because it’s first. This one resonated with me and with some of the things I have going on right now. I’ve lost a lot of the skill that comes with this habit and it’s past time to start practicing again. I’ll start with this quote:

“Being proactive doesn’t mean being pushy, aggressive or insensitive. Rather, proactivity means to control a situation from the inside out. Or in other words, to affect positive change, stop focusing on the immediate circumstances and instead consider your response to the conditions that exist. … We are free to choose our response to any situation…”

I haven’t been doing a very good job of choosing my response. Instead I’ve been allowing myself to react to things without taking control of my own situation. It’s time to change that. I cannot and will not grow until I do.