Act proactively: How you can change something

Most people don’t act proactively, often waiting until a crisis forces their hand. Change typically begins when a relationship is on the brink of collapse, when a job is at risk after repeated warnings, or when the stress and pressure finally take a physical toll, pushing us to the edge.

While it would be far more sensible to address issues before they reach a breaking point, human nature often leads us to delay until there’s no other option. We’re inclined to wait until the situation becomes dire, and only then do we make the necessary changes. But remember, making these changes empowers us and puts us back in control.

Crises often produce wrong solutions.

And changing something from a crisis is often problematic because the pressure of the crisis means that we usually don’t choose the best solution, but the simplest and quickest. The even worse next guy to get out of my bad relationship. The premature termination because I can no longer stand it. I prefer another training course, although my problem is that I’m afraid of failure.

We often change something from the crisis. Just so that the pain stops for now, and with that, we often create a much-improved problem. And then make another loop in the cycle of pain.

People who live their lives proactively.

However, a few people are different here.
These exceptional phenomena change things before the proverbial child looks at them from the fountain with big, fearful eyes. These people have a proactive personality. So they don’t wait until they can only react to the circumstances. they change something beforehand.

What kind of person lives proactively?

Proactive personality. That sounds good. But who can do that in our overly busy and hectic lives?

Often these are people who are basically in the mood for change because they quickly get bored with the old conditions.

Or these proactive people are types for whom optimization and improvement are essential so that they always strive for an even better solution.

Or they are people who have been in the crisis too often and have understood it at some point. So that they have decided for themselves: Now I am paying better attention, now I am getting smarter, and I am not going to let a crisis happen anymore.

And if you don’t belong to any of these three types of people or you want more productivity, this post then is for you.

I want to introduce you to a model or a procedure for how you can organize your positive change and your development.

Being proactive means not just reacting

So being proactive means: I don’t just react to what life throws at my feet. I think about where I want to go. I think about what I want more of in life. Then I can go actively and purposefully in this direction.

If I want to be proactive, there is also a problem.

And that I often do not know which direction is the right one for me. Because the world is so big and offers so many possibilities, it is not so easy to decide in which direction I want to let my energy, my time and my creativity flow.

What are the options to act proactively and shape my life?

Should I pursue one of my big dreams? Self-employment? The world trip? The exit from madness to live a free, minimalist life? Or what it is for you too.

Or should I learn and train with something new that interests me and that opens up new opportunities for me?

Should I take an existing skill to a new, higher, more masterly level?

Should I tackle a problem that sometimes troubles me?

Or should I improve and expand my place of residence, my job, my partnership, my social environment to experience even more fulfillment here?

So many possibilities. So little time.

A model for human development

There are so many specific directions and a proactive approach where you could change something. And this mass of possibilities often overwhelms us so that we get stuck and often do nothing at all.

But there is a way out of this overwhelming possibilities by thinking back to what we humans want.

The 2 things we humans strive for

We, humans, strive for two things:

First: a longing for pleasant experiences

We strive to have pleasant experiences. This can be relaxing lying in a hammock and or winning a competition and roaming a jungle. The pride when we invented or created something new. The roller coaster ride. The bike tour with friends. What is pleasant for you is a very personal thing and different for everyone.

So that’s one direction. The one essential thing we strive to experience pleasant experiences.

Second: please stop the pain.

What we still strive for is the end of the pain—solving the problem. Escape from prison that the load and pressure are taken from you. That inner peace finally returns.

There are two ways to end the pain. Or at least to reduce it:

Option a: Solve the problem, through change or fight.

Option b: Accept the presence of the problem and the pain. So that you can at least stop fighting it. Which usually makes the pain smaller. And that also ensures that you can spend your time doing better and more helpful things.

So these are the two basic directions that we humans strive for:

1. Experience pleasant experiences.
2. The ending of the pain.

And so you use these 2 basic aspirations.

OK. Up to here, it is still a bit abstract. But from these two essential human endeavours, several questions arise from which you can derive your next steps, your development path and your goals.

Where are the joy and your inner glow lurking?

These questions are:

• Which whole experiences are pleasant for me? (Healthy here means experiences that do not have long-term, harmful side effects)
• What makes me experience Flow ((Link))?
• What makes me experience deep inner peace?
• What makes me shine inside?
• What good experiences am I longing for?
• What experience makes me feel my liveliness?
• What is important to me right now in life? (My values)
• Which experiences bring me into contact with my values ​​and allow me to experience my values?
• And how can I organize it wisely that I have this experience regularly in the future?
• These are the questions that aim to make pleasant experiences.

3 more notes to experience beautiful experiences

Let me add three comments to pleasant experiences:

1. At first, it will often be the case that there are tailored, enjoyable experiences for you, which you do not yet know because you have never experienced this before. That is why it is so important to be open and try new things because there are still things out there that seem to be made for you. Allow yourself to discover these things.
2. Some experiences only become good over time. Especially when it comes to activities that you have to train first. No guitarist experiences massive feelings of happiness when they first touch the guitar. But if you can play your first song. And if at some point you become one with your instrument. Then there is the feeling of happiness. So take your time to discover something and stay tuned even if you don’t get the kick right away.
3. Any beautiful experience will be even more impressive if you handle it with care and gratitude. If you listen and feel closer. If you make things a little slower and more conscious, and if you send a little thank you to heaven that you can have this experience. That is the sugar on the strawberries.

What problems are waiting to be solved or accepted?

OK, that was experiencing beautiful things. But there is the other side—the side with the pain. And here, too, your direction can be hidden for the next time.
And you can find the direction by asking the following questions:

• What are the pain points in my life right now?
• What frustrates me too often, scares me too often, what am I ashamed of, where do I feel helpless and passed out, what am I annoyed about again and again, or what puts me under pressure?
• What brings me out of my harmony, what makes me dissatisfied?
• And what do I want instead? What should a situation be like in which I no longer have to feel this pain in the right way?
• Or, if I can’t see a solution, how can I learn to accept pain as part of my life? How can I stop fighting it?
  These two sets of questions are like a navigator to find your direction for the next time—the trend in which you can direct your energy, your time and your creativity soon.

Take your time

The answers to these questions lead you in the right direction. And as always, with such matters, of course, you have to take a little time to answer these questions in depth.

So when you read this, you probably won’t get any brainwaves yet instead, if you take 1 or 2 hours and reflect these questions deeply.

Which admittedly takes some courage. Because the answers to these questions naturally also create pressure to change. And because we all have parts within us that prefer to leave everything as it is. Or pieces that are afraid of the necessary change and of the consequences that the change would bring. That’s why we’re mostly a bit embarrassed to deal with such questions.

That is why we have to pinch our cheeks here and endure the slight discomfort to deal with the questions as well as the answers.

Being proactive means doing something before it gets stupid

So now you have a little navigator through the jungle of life’s possibilities.

You can find out here what the next steps might be for you.

By figuring out how to create more and more lasting, beautiful, enjoyable experiences.

And by thinking about how to deal with the most important and violent pain points in your life.

Because doing something before life gives you a crisis is proactive. That means shaping your life and making sure that you don’t have to regret anything later.