To be proactive is to be alive

summary

1. Self-awareness: basic nature of mankind
   1. Social mirror is constructed of others’ projection and biases
      1. Genetic determinism
      2. Psychic determinism
      3. Environmental determinism
   2. Freedom of choice
2. Proactivity: we are responsible for our own lives
   1. Love is a verb
   2. Focus on self, not external conditions
3. Make and keep commitments

question

What is the fundamental habit to be an effective person?

evidence

Today we come across an individual who behaves like an automaton, who does not know or understand himself, and the only person that he knows is the person that he is supposed to be, whose meaningless chatter has replaced communicative speech, whose synthetic smile has replaced genuine laughter, and whose sense of dull despair has taken the place of genuine pain. Two statements may be said concerning this individual. One is that he suffers from defects of spontaneity and individuality which may seem to be incurable. At the same time it may be said of him he does not differ essentially from the millions of the rest of us who walk upon this earth. — ^ref-9556

Reactive people build their emotional lives around the behavior of others, empowering the weaknesses of other people to control them. — ^ref-6436

The ability to subordinate an impulse to a value is the essence of the proactive person. — ^ref-44684

By working on ourselves instead of worrying about conditions, we were able to influence the conditions. — ^ref-39886

Even though you are not directly responsible for something that happens … you are responsible for your responses, for what you do and say from that moment forward — ^aa9717

conclusion

Many people in modern society live reactively due to the bandaid fix of personality ethics, thus they are not free. Reactivity is the path of least resistance, so many do not feel compelled to change.