Proactive Archives - Page 19 of 31

Crisis. Man walking on the flooded street after Hurricane Sandy landfall

October 12, 2019February 17, 2019 by Pete Wiley

Handling yourself in a Crisis: Making a Plan

How do you handle yourself in a crisis?

Are you able to think logically and rationally? The ability to remain calm when responding to a crisis is not something that comes easily to many people. It can be quite hard to hold your emotions in check, especially when faced with an emergency that could significantly affect you or those you love.

Part of this ability is related to our level of self-control. Some of us are more prone to panic than others. There are those who, somehow, are able to keep their heads no matter what’s going on, while others fly off the handle in response to the slightest emergency. If you’re in the latter group, is there anything you can do about it? Are there ways to stay calm in a crisis?

September 28, 2019February 17, 2019 by Pete Wiley

Foresight: Seeing the Best Future

How would your life change if you could see into the future? You might be able to avoid disasters or take advantage of opportunities. You might be able to help people before they got into trouble.

But what’s the point of speculating—no one can see into the future, right? Or can we?

There have always been people who seem to have the power to accurately predict future events, whether it’s the stock market, the weather, or people’s reactions.

Perseverance. Determined man with a steely gaze.

July 20, 2019January 19, 2019 by Pete Wiley

Stay the Course: Making Perseverance Part of Life

The ability to keep at something—to not give up—is often underestimated. When working toward a goal, the willingness to work consistently at a sustained level is a critical factor for success. In many cases, perseverance is just as important, if not more important than, talent or intelligence. I might have all the skills in the world, but if I can’t be disciplined about working on my goal every day, talent doesn’t do me much good.

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Focus. Determined woman focused and in the moment.

June 22, 2019January 3, 2019 by Pete Wiley

One Thing at a Time: Overcoming Challenges to Focus

Pay attention to one thing at a time.

It’s easy to say, but there is so much we have to keep track of. It’s also hard to stay focused—to keep our minds on what we are doing without getting distracted or letting our minds wander.

It’s important to remember that we are only capable of doing one thing at a time. At any single moment, our brains can only think about one thing. We may be under the illusion that we’re able to work on several things at once, but what is really happening is that we’re focusing on one thing for a very short time then moving on to something else. We may even be cycling through several tasks, causing us to think we’re focusing on all of them at the same time, but the bottom line is we can only focus on one at any given moment.

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June 8, 2019December 22, 2018 by Pete Wiley

Failure

Failure is an option.

What’s the worst thing that can happen?

As we go through our lives, we each make decisions about what we are going to do – in our jobs and in our personal lives, the big things and the small things, the important and the trivial. Part of what goes into those decisions are the consequences if we fail.

If we think we might fail, we worry that we’ll waste our time, that we could get hurt or embarrassed, or that the consequences will be dire. We fear failure. We worry about failure. We try to avoid failure.

But if we only do things that guarantee success, we are doing ourselves a disservice. We are not exploring our own personal boundaries. We are not testing ourselves. We’ll never find out what we’re made of.

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