The Tribune

I’ve heard it said that preparation is the key to real success. From internet millionaires to championship athletes, all great achievers understand and employ the power of preparation. Being proactively prepared then takes this notion of active preparation to a higher level.

In a nutshell, being proactively prepared speaks to your capacity to anticipate and arrange relevant activities in advance in order to improve your chance for success. This may sound all nice and easy but before you can be proactively prepared you must first ask yourself this: are you a proactive individual?

This is where the rubber meets the road. Most people live in the state of being reactive rather than proactive. You cannot be proactively prepared if you run on the soundtrack of being reactive.

Reaction to life challenges is a choice You can react or you can respond. The proactive individual learns how to effectively respond. They know that to win at their life, they must bring their “A” game.

It is in bringing your “A” game that you are better able to hit a home run for your life. Speaking of your “A” game, I believe the “A” in proactive is about adopting a certain attitude towards building a proactively success life.

Here are my five attitudes and abilities that anyone can develop to be more proactively prepared :

1. Anticipate

First things first, being proactive means you must first develop foresight.

The proactive individual is seldom caught by surprise. Develop a sense of anticipation; learning to anticipate problems and situations ahead of time. Focus on understanding how things work by looking for patterns, but also foresee changes in those patterns. The other key point here is, do not drop the ball by allowing yourself to become complacent. Always think things through and look creatively at ways you can be prepared in advance.

1. Address

As proactive individuals foresee potential obstacles, they build their capacity to address them before those perceived obstacles become real roadblocks.

By directly addressing potential challenges, you avoid pitfalls that may derail your progress. Don’t allow yourself to become overwhelmed by feelings of being powerless. You do in fact have the power to act, and when you directly address your challenges you develop more confidence to face them head on before they become more problematic.

1. Arrange

Proactive people make the necessary arrangements by organising and planning.

No matter what it is you want to achieve, you must make the necessary arrangements. The goal of being proactive is to determine in advance what needs to be arranged in order for you to get the results you seek. By making such arrangements, you position yourself to make the best decisions. Bigger still, this notion of making arrangements is usually associated only with the outer aspects of our lives, however, you must also focus on mentally arranging your thinking. Whether you know it or not, you have the power to arrange your thoughts towards what you want or what you don’t want. Ask yourself what it is that you really want and what you need to do differently in order to make that happen.

1. Attitude

Proactive people understand that their attitude matters. Building an attitude of gratitude is essential to being proactively happy and engaged.

Assessing and developing the right attitude remains a high priority on their agenda. Attitude is indeed everything. You may be surprised to note that the attitude you adopt literally makes or breaks how well you manage your life. A positive attitude enables you to look for the good and muster the motivation to get through adversities. You have the choice of developing a winning attitude that goes well with your intentions to be proactive.

1. Act

The very essence of being proactive means taking timely, effective and responsible action.

This means you must make the decision to act now. The challenge here is that you must first understand what motivates you to act. There is no action without motivation. As such, it is not the action we take but the reasons why we take such actions. To be proactive means taking a broader and deeper view of your reasons – your motivations.

In so doing, you don’t just react, instead you respond. By responding proactively, you begin to take responsible action.

Finally, leader to leader, remember it is not the adversities you face, but how well you respond to them that matters most. Learn to respect the process of proactive preparation. When you focus your attention towards being proactively prepared, you are better able to live an empowered life. Yes, you can do it. What do you think?

Please send your comments to coaching242@yahoo.com call or 429-6770.

• Michelle M Miller is a certified life coach, communication and leadership expert. Visit www.michellemmiller.com; mail can be sent to PO Box CB-13060.