I’ve never liked running on treadmills.
Sure, treadmills are convenient, they help you avoid harsh weather conditions, and I don’t think anyone’s been hit by a car while using one, but none of those advantages makes them fun.
No matter how much effort you give or how much the machine simulates forward motion, the reality is that treadmills always leave you in the same spot.
This is also how life feels when you’re not proactive.
Many people exhaust themselves each day without making progress because they don’t get ahead of their problems. They don’t use foresight to see what’s coming ahead, so they’re stuck reacting to every issue directly in front of them.
I don’t want you to live like that. That’s why I wrote this guide today.
The 7 steps here will help you jump off the reactive treadmill and see what it’s really like to move forward.
7 Steps to Be Proactive and Crush Your Potential Problems
Step 1: Stop and think about your actions and goals
The first step to being proactive is to get off autopilot.
Routines are good and they help us stay productive without much thought, but your routine is only as useful as your strategy. If you keep doing tasks that don’t help you get ahead, you’ll face the same consequences later, so step back and think of what you really want to do or be.
What are your goals? What are your recurring problems? What will cause huge issues later if you don’t take care of it now?
Get out of reaction mode and give yourself time to think. Taking a step back like this will change your perspective and help you make actual progress in the future.
Step 2: Determine the likely outcomes of your current path
The biggest key to becoming proactive isn’t motivation or willpower—it’s honesty.
The most proactive people you know are honest about the likely outcomes of their current path. They look at their potential choices and determine the best, worst, and expected result based on the evidence available.
If I don’t want to be late to work, for example, I need to review possible outcomes for when I start my commute:
- In the best-case scenario where every traffic light is green, I should be at work right on time if I leave at 7.
- In the worst-case scenario where each light is red, I’ll be 10 minutes late if I leave at the same time.
- And in the normal or expected scenario, I’ll end up somewhere in-between.
In the example here, I only make it to work on time in the absolute best-case scenario. If anything outside my control doesn’t go my way, I shouldn’t be surprised if I’m late.
This is how you evaluate your actions honestly. You don’t rely on hope when predicting outcomes. You assess how things are instead of how you believe them to be.
Step 3: Choose opportunities you can directly control
If you see that your path will probably lead to a poor result, look at what’s in your control and how you can potentially change the outcome.
Think of all the work you’d love to have completed right now so there won’t be consequences later. Imagine all the stuff you could mark off your to-do list that would make your future-self say, “thank you, me”. Those are your opportunities to improve.
This is also a great time to look at any recurring responsibilities.
If you know a bill or a presentation is coming up that you need to prepare for, think of how you can do so in the present so there’s no pressure near the deadline. Nothing is more frustrating than having avoidable stress at the same time every month. So what can you do right now to keep those deadlines from sneaking up on you?
Step 4: Get your plans out of your head
Once you’ve chosen opportunities that are within your power to change, write down those choices as soon as possible.
Doing this will get your plans out of your head and keep your mind from getting overwhelmed. Putting those ideas in front your eyes will also give them a sense of realness that passing thoughts in your brain will never have.
I like to put all my ideas in a spreadsheet too once my written list gets too big. That way I can organize all my thoughts and sort them based on timing, impact, and difficulty.
All the opportunities you thought of earlier won’t have the same importance, so getting your plans in order this way will help you focus on the most rewarding tasks.
Step 5: Shift from capability thinking to investment thinking
I talked about this in a previous article, but one of the most productive mindset tricks you can use is switching from capability thinking to investment thinking.
You want to stop asking, “can I do it?”, and instead ask, “what will it take?”.
So many of us avoid work and problem-solving because it’s all too scary in the moment. We think we’re not smart enough or skilled enough to address problems quickly, so instead of finally getting ahead of them, we avoid them so we don’t feel inadequate.
This is why we should change our mindset.
Instead of thinking about our skill limitations, we should only think of time-based limits. I believe anyone can solve problems effectively if given enough time. You should think the same way about yourself.
If you view tough tasks as just being more time-intensive, you’ll be more willing to start early than if you doubt your ability to do them at all.
Step 6: Initiate boldly to build momentum
Just start. That’s it.
You should have the right plans and the right mindset now, so all you need to do is initiate.
Boldly take that first step as soon as you can, because once you do, your momentum will make it easier to keep moving forward.
Understand that there will never be a perfect time to start. You can always point to reasons why you should wait or why you might fail, but accept all those risks and start the process anyway.
The discomfort you’ll feel in the present is better than the consequence you’ll face later if you don’t act. You’ll be trading debilitating stress later for a minor inconvenience now. And that’s a trade wise people make ten times out of ten.
Step 7: Use systems to sustain your changes
The work doesn’t stop once you get the ball rolling. The last challenge now is to make your changes bulletproof.
You looked at the possible outcomes for your previous path earlier, and you should do something similar here. Think about the good change you’ve chosen and then brainstorm every possible threat to it you can think of.
Maybe you think you’ll be too lazy to keep up your effort, or perhaps you think you’ll forget to keep doing your planned tasks. Whatever you see as a threat, write it down.
Once you think of every flaw that might derail you, choose the ones most likely to happen, and then work backwards to address the root cause.
If future laziness is as big of a threat as you think for example, look for ways to automate your tasks so you’re not dependent on willpower. And if you think your memory will fail you eventually, put reminders on your calendar so your brain doesn’t have to carry as much of a burden.
This is how you make systems that squash problems before they occur. You think about everything that could go wrong and address their dormant causes now.
How to Be Proactive: A Summary
As you can see, being proactive isn’t difficult. It just takes a little strategy, a lot of honesty, and a handful of courage to change things up.
To summarize, here are each of the 7 steps again so you remember exactly what to do going forward:
- Stop and think about your actions and goals
- Determine the likely outcomes of your current path
- Choose opportunities you can directly control
- Get your plans out of your head
- Shift from capability thinking to investment thinking
- Initiate boldly to build momentum
- Use systems to sustain your changes
Getting ahead of your problems is one of the most liberating feelings you can experience, so please give yourself the chance to know what it’s like.
Most of our future problems are more predictable and fixable than we think. We just need to show them the same effort we give to ones we already have.
-Drew
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