Proactivity vs Reactivity

Essay by csigabigaUniversity, Bachelor's November 2008

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Proactive people are those, who are responsible for their lives. Their behavior is a function of their decisions, not their conditions. These people have an ability to choose their responses. They don't blame anyone or anything for their behavior, as they know that their behavior is the result of their own actions, own choices. Proactive people are driven by values.

Reactive people, on the contrary, are very affected by the others or other things. Such people are affected by physical and social environments. Reactive people are normally driven by feeling, by circumstances, by conditions.

Each person can choose self in what degree the events, which go around him, influence him. As Eleanor Roosevelt observed, "No one can hurt you without your consent" . A proactive person understands if something bad happens to him, it is because of his own actions. A reactive person chooses to blame everyone and everything around but him for what happened to him, he feels that he is determined.

The other difference between proactive and reactive people is that proactive people are taking the initiative. That means that if they want to achieve something in their lives they don't seat and wait for it to happen, but do all they can to reach the goal.

The difference between proactive and reactive person can be seen from the first sight. The language that people use can show that. Or more exactly the way people talk about things around them. The table shows some examples.

The other way to find out the degree of proactivity is to look on the circle of our concern. Circle of Concern consist of things that worry us, the problems we try to solve. The things in this circle can be divided into two groups. One is where we have no...