Habit 1 - Respect Your Proactive Nature, Circle of Influence/Concern, Problems &Behavior

1. Beware of the Social Mirror – sometimes they are more projections than reflections
2. Listen to your language – Let’s look at our alternatives. I choose. I prefer. I will.
3. Circle of Influence - Review a challenging situation in the context of Circle of Influence.
• How can you respond proactively?
• Work on things you can do something about.
4. Problems & Behavior: Direct, Indirect, and No Control - Select a problem from work or personal life and determine whether it is
• Direct Control (Problems involving our own behavior)
• Indirect Control (Problems involving other people’s behavior)
• No Control (Problems we can do nothing about, such as our past or situational realities)
5. Show more Initiative- Use your Resourcefulness and Initiative!
• Holding people to the responsible course is not demeaning, it is affirming.
• Proactivity is part of human nature, and even if the muscles are dormant, they are there. Respect others and your own proactive nature.
• Many people wait for something to happen or someone t take care of them. But people who end up with the good jobs are proactive ones who are solutions to problems, not problems themselves, who seize the initiative to do whatever is necessary ,consistent with correct principles, to get the job done.
6. Consequences & Natural Law - While we are free to choose our actions, we are not free to choose the consequences of those actions. Consequences are governed by natural law. They are out in the Circle of Concern.
7. Be driven by values, not feelings. It’s the nature of reactive people to absolve themselves of responsibility. It’s so much safer to say, “I am not responsible.” If I say I am responsible,” I might have to say “I am irresponsible.”