TAKE ACTION - TAKE CHARGE

Two words caught my attention as I was reading the other day-

'DECIDE' and 'INACTION'.

I got to thinking...

Life is full of choices.

Someone has suggested that what we are today is
the sum total of the choices we have made.

Whether we agree or not, there is one choice demanded
of us that profoundly affects the course of our life.

This choice shapes our character.
It affects the level of stress we deal with each day.
This choice either keeps us moving forward or buries us
in confusion and indifference.

Day by day, situation by situation, we choose

to be PROACTIVE, REACTIVE or INACTIVE.

To be PROACTIVE is to be prepared and ready.

Visualizing, planning and discipline are the foundation stones
of being prepared and ready.

By visualizing I mean IMAGINE a scenario from start to finish.

For example, when I prepare my Day Plan, I imagine myself
engaged in each task in my list.

This gives me a sense of what's involved and allows me
to anticipate intuitively what could or might happen.

I ask myself, What will I do if that happens?
What do I need to 'handle the situation'?

Armed with an INTUITIVE READINESS derived from visualizing

and guided by a written PLAN OF ACTION,

my next step calls for every ounce of DISCIPLINE—

...JUST DO IT!

Now let me say right here that I am hard-pressed to remember
a single day that has gone 'as planned'.

The unexpected has an uncanny way of interrupting my best-laid plans.

However, I am equally hard-pressed to remember a single day
on which I chose to be PROACTIVE,
a day for which I prepared myself by visualizing and planning,
that I have not successfully 'handled' each unexpected situation.

I can assure you that some of the unexpected situations tested
my readiness and my discipline to the max!

If we don't choose to be PROACTIVE, we become REACTIVE by default.

In REACTIVE mode, we are easily caught off guard
and find ourselves scrambling to recover.

Often, we never do catch up.

'The hurry-er I go, the behind-er I get!'

Other consequences of being REACTIVE is that we are easily
confused, frustrated and stressed.

In that emotional state we often lose it
and blow up in an outburst of anger.

Unfortunately, others who really had nothing to do with the situation,
get the brunt of our ire.

The third alternative is to DO NOTHING.

We think we are 'going with the flow',
but in reality we are simply INACTIVE.

In effect, we place ourselves at the mercy
of the things that happen to us.

Then we wonder why nothing ever goes right for us,
and why we never get anywhere.

The issue boils down to POWER and CONTROL.

The truth is we have been entrusted with both—

...POWER and CONTROL.

No one can take POWER or CONTROL from us.

We CHOOSE to use it or we LOSE it!

My DECISION is clear.

I take full RESPONSIBILITY for my life.

I AM PROACTIVE.

Shalom!