1. Warm Up
“People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, make them.”
-George Bernard Shaw
What does this quote mean? Write your thoughts in a brief paragraph. How can this apply to your experience in high school so far?

2. Learning Goal
I will understand what it means to be proactive versus reactive by reviewing Habit 1 and engaging in reflective strategies in order to learn how to take control of my own life and make successful decisions.

3. Habit 1
Be Proactive

4. Proactive vs. Reactive Reactive people make choices based on impulse.
They react to everyone and everything without thinking
They fail to plan ahead
They let the world shake them up, and they lose control
Proactive people make choices based on values.
They think before they act
They can’t control everything that happens to them, but they are able to control what they do about it
They plan ahead
They stay calm and in control

5. Your Language Matters!

6. Can-Do People vs. No-Can-Do People
Take initiative to make it happen
Wait for something to happen to them
Focuses on solutions and options
Focuses on problems and barriers
Take action
Are acted upon

7. The “Victimitus Virus”
Refers to people who constantly “play the victim” in life
These people have come to believe that everyone has it in for them and that the world owes them something
These people feel entitled, when in truth everything in life is earned
These people are REACTIVE
Reactive people often:
Are easily offended
Blame others
Get angry or say things they later regret
Complain
Wait for things to happen
Change only if they absolutely have to

8. Just Push Pause
If you can learn to pause, get control, and think about how you want to respond, you can make better choices.
Use these tools to help:

10. Turning Setbacks into Triumphs
(Class reading)

11. Becoming a Change Agent
(Class reading)