4) Listening to reality

The power of proactivity rests upon your ability to listen to reality. You can’t say that you are proactive when you try to avoid unreal threats, or when you make plans for your future based on false perspectives. The truly proactive person is one who is in touch with reality.

Reality speaks, sometimes in low whispers and sometimes in loud screams. Not all of us listen to reality when it speaks though; some hear it and choose to ignore it and some are just blind to the truth. Listening to reality is crucial if you want to maintain order in your life, because a person who is out of touch with reality is unable to interact with the real world effectively.

A misunderstanding of the importance of reality leads some people to ignore it when it speaks. Especially when reality doesn’t say nice things about us or our circumstances. I am talking about the times when we want to hear that there is nothing wrong with our lives, when in reality our lives are in chaos.

If you are humble enough to admit to your own flaws then you are capable of correcting them. It is a most pitiable state to be in when you’re unable to see and accept that your life is a mess when it really is. A person who listens to reality looks at the facts and accepts them as they are, even when they make him or her feel bad.

Even when you have a satisfactory amount of order in your life, it is still important to listen to the voice of reality. This is when it’s most important actually, because you avoid regressing back to chaos. It takes more strength and self-discipline to continue to stay in touch with reality when life is a calm sea, because there will be no negative circumstances to motivate you.

It takes a high level of maturity to understand that something is wrong when everything is right. By this I mean that the idea of a “perfect life” without any problems or challenges is nothing but an illusion. The very state of “success” or “happiness,” or “contentment” is a challenge to appreciate, survive and maintain. Everything has its challenges. You get to understand all these realities of life by listening to reality when it speaks, at whatever stage in your life, whatever the effect of its message (pleasing or upsetting).