Persistence Marketing:

While this article is primarily targeted at the benefits of the proactivity habit as it relates to your business, the benefits of this habit go much further than your professional life. Personally, I am experiencing this in its truest form today.

By virtue of the fact that you are reading this you are miles ahead of many of the people that you will encounter in the process of building your business. While proactivity is a common word used in a lot of books and other materials, what is the actual definition of proactivity?

Proactivity goes directly to the heart of the matter, which is that we are each responsible for our own lives. Our behaviors, functions, successes, failures, etc are all a direct result of our own decisions, not anything external to us. While this is very difficult to swallow and not exactly something most people want to hear, this is something that we must learn to accept. Now before you decide that you have read all that you can stand, stick with me for a few minutes.

Does anyone have the ability to make you mad? Can anyone truly hurt your feelings? Is it possible for external factors ruin your day? The answer to all of these and many more questions is simply “No”. The only way in which these external factors can have an impact on you and how your day is going, is if you choose to let those things affect you.

This becomes very important in the process of building a Home Based Business because you are dealing with people, relationships and all that they choose or choose not to do. As you can imagine, if you change your mood, your enthusiasm, your energy or your outlook on life based on everyone around you and your environment, life will be a massive roller coaster ride.

As an example, I started out the day with the promise of some fantastic things happening. In short I was scheduled to be helping someone with their business that has an incredible amount of potential. Short story is that it did not happen. Now I have some choices to make. I can let that single event keep me down for the remainder of the day or I can switch gears and make today a successful and prosperous day in spite of the external circumstances. I can tell you that I will be having a VERY successful day.

Reactive people allow external stimulus to control how they feel and more importantly how their life is played out. Another way of looking at this is that Reactive people allow other people’s feelings and their values to control how their life is going. Imagine changing your mind about how important your Home Based Business is to you and your family each time you interact with a prospect and not your own set of values.

On the other side of that same coin, Proactive people are still influenced by external stimulus (physical, psychological, social) but their response to that same stimulus is a chosen response based on their own values. While this may be a difficult topic emotionally to accept, it is one that we must come to grips with, if we want to maximize our success in life. So, where do we start?

Start by listening to your language and how you talk on a daily basis. Is our language that of a Reactive person or that of a Proactive person. Where Reactive speak will sound like:

There’s nothing I can do
That’s just the way I am
They make me mad
I can’t
I have to….
If, only…

Listen to the language of the Proactive people in your life as they are much more likely to say things like:

Let me look at my options
I can choose a different approach
I choose to….
I will…..
I control my feelings
I can…..

Can you see the subtle, but important difference in the examples above? It really becomes a task of reprogramming how we think. The next time you start to say “I can’t” or “I have to”, stop yourself. Look at your situation from a different point of view and say something like “I choose to” or “I can ….”, you will soon find yourself looking at life in a way that you never knew was possible. Granted this is not an easy task and not something to take lightly. However with persistent effort and a conscious decision on your part to adopt a habit of Proactivity you will find yourself on a course to more success.

While I have provided you some ground work here for creating this foundation habit of the most successful people you will ever meet, I have only scratched the surface of what you really need to know. To get a much better, more in-depth, understanding of this habit please do yourself a favor and read “Habit 1″ of “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, by Stephen R. Covey.

Regardless of your current situation, your current financial status, the success you have achieved in your Home Based Business, all of these things can change for the better. You have the ability, there is no cost and most importantly you can start today. Don’t be afraid to dream, set goals higher than you ever thought possible and then go after them starting with the first habit of highly effective people, Proactivity.

As I started out, the habit of Proactivity is so critical in business, but it is equally important in our personal lives. Life in general is challenging, don’t make it any more challenging than it has to be. Remember, the habit of Proactivity, is about being responsible for our own lives, not Reactive. Unless you allow them to, no one has the ability to make you mad, ruin your day or anything else. Do not give control of your life away to anyone and they will NOT have control of your life, your business or your finances. You alone are responsible: “Response” – “Ability”.