Lean Quote: Be More Proactive To Reach Your Goals

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.

"I believe that everyone chooses how to approach life. If you’re proactive, you focus on preparing. If you’re reactive, you end up focusing on repairing."   —  John C. Maxwell

Reactive people wait for a problem to take over, then scramble for a way to fix it. Reactive people don’t plan or take steps toward their goals. Instead, they hope they’ll work on it someday when life is stress-free and they’re brimming with motivation, intelligence, and free time. You don’t wait for the “perfect” time because it doesn’t exist.

An influential leader has the confidence to take ownership of their actions. Especially when they make mistakes, they don’t blame others or deny what happened. Instead, they learn from it and move on to the next step. It’s such an admirable and exceptional quality to have.

Being proactive is about focusing on the things you can control in life and letting the rest go. Besides, you can’t do anything about those things anyway. But if you don’t take responsibility for the things you do, you’ll struggle to do anything worthwhile.

Always keep in mind that if you mess up, it’s okay. Every person you admire has made a mountain of mistakes. But they learned from them and used them to move up in their field. So, if you slip up, don’t worry about it. Instead, learn from it and use it to improve. Otherwise, you might hit the same wall repeatedly until you stop trying.

If you there’s an obstacle on the horizon, plan how you’ll conquer it beforehand. If that method doesn’t work, try something else. Keep trying different strategies until you make it through.

Every simplistic bit of effort will bring you closer to fulfilling your dream, and there’s no one to blame but yourself if you deny yourself that.

After all, no one else can reach your goals for you.

No doubt, being more action-oriented will boosts your productivity and success levels. It’ll make every day more enjoyable.