I can do this

When I encounter trouble, challenges, or setbacks, sometimes I say: “‘I can’t do this!” I get really whiny and upset. My head starts to hurt and my fingers start to throb. There’s only one extra letter following the word ‘can,’ yet it changes the whole mood, attitude and motivation of this sentence. And here’s the truth, that one extra letter should be rarely supplemented.

Being proactive. I guess that’s what I do. I view proactivity as the opposite of a reactive attitude, meaning that you don’t react to a cause, you take action and drive that cause to the effect you want it to bring. I notice that when I first approach a setbacks or something I don’t know, I may complain to myself, “I can’t do it.” Then the little fairy named Proactive

strikes her wand and I catch become present in the present. I know I should never curtail my opportunities in life, especially those which offer a learning experience. And this is when Proactive says, “Make a plan, Ava!” So I endeavor to attack the problem. I follow my plan, and for sure, these plans range. Sometimes they’re simple reminders and other times they’re lifestyle rectifications.

Once I follow this plan I make for myself, I tend to feel a little bit less stressed (though I’ll always be stressed!) and it makes me feel like I can accomplish anything when I reach the culmination of my goal. In the end, being proactive is really the basis for everything. If you have the desire and the drive to achieve something, you can do it. In my personal experiences, I find I start by freaking out, then formulate a plan, and execute it.

Here’s a chart of what I consider reactive versus proactive approaches to opposition. Sean Covey was a major inspiration for these.

Reactive	Proactive
I don’t have time.	I have as much time as Albert Einstein did…I’ll make time.
I have to do this.	I chose to do this.
I don’t know how to do this.	I make a plan to figure out how to solve this.

At the end of the day, this is how it all boils down: we can do anything we want, if we give the correct form of effort and integrity. We should all confidently be able to say, “I can do this.”