BE PROACTIVE

most of the time, we hear people complain about how much their life sucks or how hard life is. they will always find someone to blame or some excuse so they can get out of the situation. for example, a person who's late will blame it on traffic. a student who failed a subject will tell his/her parents that the subject was hard or the teacher sucked. i'm not saying that everything is the person's fault, but there will ALWAYS be some blame on the person whether we like it or not.

one of the best things to do is to be proactive.

Proactivity Defined: As human beings we are responsible for our own lives.

• Reactive people are driven by feelings, circumstances, conditions, the environment.
• Proactive people are driven by carefully considered, selected and internalized values.
  (source: http://www.leaderu.com/cl-institute/habits/habit1.html)

i remember this seminar i went to wherein one of the points raised was ...

LIFE IS 10 % WHAT HAPPENS TO YOU,

90 % WHAT YOU DO ABOUT IT.

if you think you're bad at something or something sucks in your life, find ways to improve it. for example, i need lots of money so that i can live comfortably when i move out (di ko nga lang sigurado kung kelan magaganap un) and still be able to save money for school next year. unfortunately, my salary isn't really gonna be a lot. so, what i'm doing right now is work my ass off so i get the bonus and commissions. if in case this won't be enough, i'll get a second job. I THINK that's being proactive. i won't just complain that life is hard, that i'm alone here, that i need to establish myself, that this is too much responsibility, etc ... i'll do something to make the situation work.

another thing though, being proactive doesn't always mean being "active". for example, i thought that my officemate was mad at me last week (warning: this may be a lousy example, haha) but i didn't ask her about it. i didn't want to complicate things or aggravate things by awakening her emotions. i just let her calm down. now, we're ok again. we talk again. we share "tips" with each other again. my point is, there are times when silence will actually be better than saying something. other than the possibility that the "argument" will stop, it will also prevent us from stooping down to their level.

sucky things will always happen in life ... you will fail a test, you can't fit into your dream dress, you will lose money, you will lose a job, the girl you like will turn you down, a boyfriend will cheat on you, you will lose someone you love, you will encounter something bad that you didn't even think it was possible. the beauty of life is that the bad things will not (or should not) restrict/define what/who you are. it's in your hands to make wiser decisions, not commit the same mistakes, be inspired by your experience.

you may not be able to change what happened in the past,

but you sure have the power to shape your future into something you want.

remember ...

Yesterday is history

Tomorrow is a mystery

Today is a gift

That's why it's called the present