By Bronagh Lyons
There are two types of people in the world, proactive people and reactive people.
In University, if I had two months to write an essay, I would start it the night before and pull an all-nighter to hand it in just-on-time.
Long deadlines never motivated me to take action, but knowing a 5,000-word essay is due in 24 hours? I’m suddenly very motivated!
I had friends who would plan out their essays for the two months; prepare their research; sketch their notes. They would bring their deadline forward and hand their essays a week early…
While they were preparing to prepare, I was that person always running around, arriving late to everything, forgetting commitments I’d made, pulling out of promises last minute.
My life was an impending deadline – stressful!
I realised that I am reactive and that those friends are proactive.
Now don’t get me wrong, there are A LOT of benefits of being reactive.
For example, we are very flexible and adaptable as we are used to acting on the spot and working with short deadlines.
However, when I began putting plans in place and organising my day my life became easier.
The key to being reactive is to be proactive about your reactivity.
In turn, my proactive friends learned how to be more flexible and adaptable, to think on the spot and make quick decisions – they took their proactive skills into reactive situations and learned to thrive.
How can you be proactive about your reactivity? Or be proactive in reactive situations?
