How to be Proactive

Why be responsible? So you don’t make mistakes and you fix problems promptly.

What does it mean to be proactive and why should you care? Proactive behavior means anticipating problems and fixing them before they happen. It contrasts with reactive behavior which is all about fixing the problem after it occurs.

What does this have to do with Humanism? Humanists spend a lot of time thinking. We think about what is ethical. We think about how to be compassionate. We think about responsibilities and more. The reason we do all this thinking is not so that we end up in thinking limbo, but so that we can be proactive in our lives.

We all make mistakes. As a Humanist, I would prefer to avoid the avoidable mistakes if at all possible. I know the only way to do avoid making mistakes is to think about the problems and the potential problems I am likely to make before they actually become problems. This allows me to not only avoid making mistakes; it also allows me to fix problems promptly when I do make them. Because I expect to make them and so am proactive in dealing with them.

To me, this is what it means to be responsible. It is also the answer to the question, why be responsible? If you want to be successful you need to avoid as many mistakes as possible and to do that, you have to be proactive and responsible for avoiding and correcting your mistakes. This is why we Humanists think so much and spend so much time thinking about how we think.

Why be responsible and learn how to think well? So you can proactively fix problems so that you don’t make mistakes in the first place.

What is the most common mistake you make and what do you do to avoid it?