El Centro Jr./Sr. High School, YDF Library

Habit 1: Be Proactive

Take A Moment and Do this Excersize 3 times.

Let's Take a Quiz

Are you more Proactive or Reactive ?

Someone you know and have to spend time with is talking s**t about you behind your back. You:

A) confront them calmly; a resolution might make both your lives easier.

B) confront them in a hostile way.

Your teacher asks you to complete an assignment. He has already asked you several times. You:

A) Explain politely that you may need more time, but assure him it will be finished by the end of the day.

B) Cuss at him and refuse to do your work because you feel disrespected.

Your boss has you on probation for being late to work every day. You are having issues because you have to take your kid to school and its very difficult to get there on time. You:

A) Apologize and speak to your boss about alternatives; perhaps you can work a little later or put in extra time on the weekends to make up for it.

B) Quit. You don't need to take that s**t.

If you got more A's you are Proactive. If you got more B's you are Reactive

Scroll to the bottom of the page for answers

Circles of Control, Influence and Concern

Instead of reacting to or worrying about conditions over which they have little or no control, proactive people focus their time and energy on things they can control. The problems, challenges, and opportunities we face fall into two areas--Circle of Concern and Circle of Influence. Proactive people focus their efforts on their Circle of Influence. They work on the things they can do something about: health, children, problems at work. Reactive people focus their efforts in the Circle of Concern--things over which they have little or no control: the national debt, terrorism, the weather. Gaining an awareness of the areas in which we expend our energies in is a giant step in becoming proactive.

Nathan Sanchez, Marie-Mar Eclar, & Alicia Gervacio, https://the7habits1.weebly.com/habit-1.html

When we look at the things within our circle of concern, we can see that there are some things over which we have no real control and others that we can do something about.

The things we can do something about, Stephen Covey calls our “circle of influence” and he draws it as a smaller circle within the circle of concern.

The model then gives us the first step to finding a solution to our problem. Within our circle of influence we can:

Change our habits (behaviour/ thinking), or
Change our methods of influence, or
Change our attitude towards the problems over which we have no control (accept the problems and learn to live with them, even though we don’t like them).

The inner circle is known as the Circle of Control. This encompasses those circumstances/issues/problems that we have direct control over. This includes problems involving our own behaviour and thoughts. (Although we don’t have the power to control all of the thoughts that come into our minds, we do have the power to choose whether or not to allow them to stay. Thoughts come and go. What we choose to linger on is a big part of what creates our reality).

The middle circle is the Circle of Influence. This encompasses those circumstances/issues/problems that we have indirect control over. This includes problems involving other people’s behaviour. We can’t directly control them, but there’s a good chance that we can have an impact or influence on them by our own actions and choices.

The outside circle is the Circle of Concern. It is also known as the circle of ‘no control’. This encompasses the wide range of circumstances/issues/problems we have, but over which we have no control. This includes problems we can do nothing about, such as our past or situational realities. It’s the biggest circle because there are so many things that we have no power to change.

If we put our time and energy into worrying about the things that are in our circle of concern we will continue to feel out of control and helpless. But if we put our time and energy into our circle of influence and our circle of control we will give ourselves a sense of agency and feel more in control. So this is where we need to focus our time and energy.

When we can’t change our circumstances, there is no point in investing time and energy trying to do that. But all is not lost, because we do still retain our capacity to change our attitude towards it.

Let's Try It

Create your own "Circles" Using Google Slides!

Quick How-To

Helpful Answers

Resources Cited

Balchan, M. (2018, August 30). Be Proactive (aka Response-Ability). Michael Balchan. http://michaelbalchan.com/popn/be-proactive-aka-response-ability/

Pyle, N. (2016, November 3). Hi Imgur, I made animations to help us all take a deep breath [Video]. Imgur. https://imgur.com/gallery/7RR99

Newton, C. (2021). Home. Claire Newton. https://www.clairenewton.co.za/

SoulPancake [SoulPancake]. (2013, December 20). How To Change The World (a work in progress) | Kid President [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=4z7gDsSKUmU

Yates, A. [@raethinksdeep]. (2020, January 27). The remaining 6 habits hinge on this 1! #7habitsofhighlyeffectivepeople #habits #successtips #selfimprovement #entrepreneurmind [Video]. TikTok. https://www.tiktok.com/@raethinksdeep/video/6922645239429647621?referer_url=https%3A%2F%2F624421406-atari- embeds.googleusercontent.com%2F&referer_video_id=6922645239429647621&refer=embed&is_copy_url=0&is_from_webapp=v1&sender_device=pc&sender_web_id= 6997473154466547205

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