Be Proactive, Not Reactive

There has been a few complications getting our things moved up from Dunedin. I've mentioned a few times that I'm living out of a suitcase at the moment, despite being in my new home already. Everything should have arrived after New Year's but actually, they won't get here for another 2 weeks. This means we've been living in our home, without our things, for 3 months. It's been a bit frustrating to say the least.

I've been reading Stephen Covey's The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People; I'm only a few chapters in, but already I'm seeing a huge change in the way I think. The lesson that has stuck with me the most so far is be proactive, not reactive.

Reactive people are at the mercy of their conditions. If things are bad, they feel bad. If things are good, they feel good. 

Proactive people on the other hand recognise that their conditions don't control them - they can choose how to respond. 

I was getting very stressed trying to sort out what was happening with our moving company. I couldn't get hold of them and I had no idea what was going on. It would have been easy for me to completely lose it, but then I remembered what I'd been reading. Losing it wouldn't help me get our things back. Getting stressed wouldn't help me figure out what was happening.

So instead I focused on my Circle of Influence. Rather than becoming upset about all the unknowns, and the what ifs, and the I don't knows, I started thinking about what I could actually do to help this situation. I started thinking proactively.

Having that moment of calm and clarity helped me immensely. Because of it, I remembered that our original moving company had worked with another company on our job. 

I tracked down the other company, emailed them all our details, and they located our things. It turns out there had been a mix up with orders, and our things had been sitting in storage in Dunedin for the past few months. They then booked us a truck which should arrive in the next few weeks. That was a huge relief!

I can't imagine how much longer our things would have sat in storage if I hadn't tracked down the other company. If I had been reactive instead of proactive, it might have been ages before we got our things back.

Being proactive in that moment allowed me to think outside the box - and it made me realised that my Circle of Influence is much bigger than I give myself credit for!

I'm loving this book, and I have a feeling this won't be the last reflection I post about it.

Have you read Stephen Covey's Seven Habits? What did you think of it?

Read More, Watch Less

 

| image & DIY bookmarks via Andrea Singarella |

This past week I've been trying to cut down on the amount of TV and movies I watch. When I was a teenager, there was one point when my family didn't have TV reception for about three years. We were living in a newly established residential area in a valley which didn't yet have reception. A year later when it became available, my parents decided they were happy without it so chose not to install an aerial. 

I honestly didn't miss it. People were shocked when they found out I didn't "have TV" at home. 'But, what do you do?' they would ask. Lots of things! I would have more conversations with my parents & my sister and I would go to the park across the road and play on the swings (those are fun at any age!) I had so much free time and didn't feel like I was missing out on anything.

It was during this time that a lot of new shows came out, like Desperate Housewives and American Idol. At school people would be talking about what happened on the latest episode and I didn't care at all. Even today, I still don't really care about those particular shows, because I've never sat down to watch them.

But now I have the ability to watch TV & movies on my laptop, and slowly I've noticed an increase in my media intake. I find myself needing to keep up with new episodes, and watch that latest movie.

A while ago I was discussing books with a friend and I realised that it been so long since I'd last read a book for a leisure. I used to devour them! I would get books as birthday presents, and stay up way into the night reading them. Once when my school librarian wouldn't let me borrow a book because she considered it to be "too old" for me, I went to the public library and got it out from there instead.

I've realised that if I watched less movies and TV shows, I would have time to read more. So that's the trade I'm making! More books, less TV. More letting my imagination run wild and bringing characters to life, less sitting around like a couch potato staring blankly at a screen. 

So my question to you is, what are some of your favourite books? I'm quite a fan of historical fiction (think the Cross Stitch series, The Clan of the Cave Bear series, & The Bronze Horseman series), so do you have any recommendations for me? I'd love to hear your thoughts!