Proactive
Creating or controlling a situation rather than just responding to it after it has happened.
Oxford Dictionary
Reactive
Acting in response to a situation rather than creating or controlling it
Oxford Dictionary
Massive Benefits to being Proactive
There are massive benefits to being proactive.
Typically, being proactive will allow you to shape future outcomes whereas being reactive will allow others to shape your future outcomes for you.
An example of this would be how many small businesses go about acquiring new clients.
Here’s a split showing a proactive approach versus a reactive approach:
Proactive approach:
- defining the exact types of clients you want to have
- tailoring your offering for them
- reaching out to them and convincing them of the value your business has to offer
- slowly create a portfolio of these good fit clients which will lead to even more good fit clients
Reactive approach:
- wait for potential clients who notice your business to reach out to you
- from this pool of potential clients, choose the ones you wish work with (or potentially work with them all as you don’t have a massive selection to choose from)
- over time, allow your client portfolio to be dictated by whichever potential clients reach out to you
The obvious downside of being reactive here is that you really are at the mercy of other peoples’ actions.
The funny thing is that the majority of freelancers, consultants and small agencies that I speak to adopt a reactive approach in acquiring new clients.
Often unknowingly.
Why?
It’s difficult to be proactive
There are many reasons why being proactive is more difficult than being reactive.
Being proactive requires:
– planning
– strategy
– self-motivation
– discipline to repel immediate distractions and focus on a future goal
Being proactive will force you to experience a lot of:
– rejection
– feeling like you’re investing a lot for very little immediate reward
A long term and sustainable approach
Proactive initiatives often won’t result in instant return and this causes the vast majority of proactive initiatives to get canned.
I’ve found that the best way to persevere with proactive initiatives is to make them sustainable and enjoyable from the outset.
If you’re a freelancer, small agency or consultant – this may require even dedicating just 30 minutes per day to proactive activities that you’re interested in.
Dedicating only a small percentage of your day toward proactive initiatives will limit the immediate impact it has on your business and maybe even energise you each day.
Whether it’s investing in your businesses’ SEO, creating an actual content strategy or automating a lot of internal processes – I urge you to be a little proactive today to give yourself a massive competitive advantage in years to come.
”Do what today others won’t, so tomorrow, you can do what others can’t.
Brian Rogers Loop
As always, thank you for reading!
