“Most setbacks can be effectively corrected at or near the time of their occurrence, and proactivity goes a step further. It means dealing with the problem before it materializes.”

Problems are often easiest to change while they are still small. Once one has fully arrived, attention turns to repair. Before that point, the same attention can prevent the damage altogether. Proactivity begins with seeing and acting early. Like a driver noticing the car ahead slow down, it joins awareness of the present with a sense of what may happen next. The warning matters because it arrives while there is still room to respond.

One avoided problem may also close the door on the problems that would have followed it. The value of acting early is therefore larger than the first event. A timely choice can protect parts of life that never have to become part of the crisis.