7 habits of highly effective people and the 1st habit

HABIT 1: PROACTIVE

SUMMARY

Proactivity means more than merely taking initiative. I myself have to have the initiative and the responsibility to make things happen.

Proactivity = initiative + responsibility
Responsibilty = response ability = the ability to CHOOSE my response.

My behavior should be the product of my own conscious choice, BASED ON VALUE, not a product of my conditions, based on feeling.

+ Yes, this is currently my biggest weakness. I always react based on my feelings and my intuition.
+ I must train myself to be proactive, to be VALUE DRIVEN, to have the ability to transform an impulse in to a value

Now, for the current situation, I am feeling down and depreciated, being put in the Mere Hard Skill Team, being arranged to sit in a non-cubical seat, being the lowest level in the team… What should I do to be proactive and value-driven in this case? Yes, dear Mr. Covey, it is extremely hard to accept emotionally, as what you said. Is it because I had 24 years of blaming my own misery to the circumstances? Ok, let’s say it out loud: “I am what I am today because of the choices I made yesterday”. Yes, it is true. I chose not to speak up for myself for being more involved in the more active team, the Soft Skill team. I chose not to speak up to the lead to let me involve more in the soft skills part. What was my reason? The reason was because I would like to practice more on my technical skills. That was my call. I should never say “I choose otherwise”.

The book says “It’s not what happens to us, but our response to what happens to us that hurts us.” So it is my responsibility to let this happens to me. I have to blame myself? Is it what Mr. Covey means?

Yes, my character and my basic identity are not hurt at all. Yet, my emotion is still hurt.

It is said that the most difficult experiences will help to develop my internal powers, my freedom to handle tough circumstances in the future and to inspire others to do so as well… I've never experienced nor witness such things before... However, I did read and watch movies based on a lot of such inspiring stories... But the effect is not really that much...