Day Thirteen of The Thirty Day Proactve Test

Change

Now it is starting to get hard. I am beginning to see that a whole self-transformation thing is going to have to occur if I am going to complete this Thirty Day Proactive Test without just being a total liar to myself and the readers of this blog. On Day 1, I wrote to everyone that my life was shit and that I wanted to change.

However, right now, I am still kind of sleepy because my body is fighting off this infection. I did finally finish reading the second chapter in Covey's book. I also took a closer look at the exercises from Chapters 1 and 2. To aid me in this change, I plan to try these exercises , posting my findings on this blog. I must rest now.

5:22 PM

So here is the other exercise from Chapter 1. It will be divided into three parts. Here is part one, "Identify an experience you might encounter in the near future where, based on past experience, you would probably behave reactively."

Well I am not going to have to use my imagination or visualization skills too much to look in the near future for this part of the exercise because I am already in the middle of an experience where, based on past experience, I would probably behave reactively.

Not only am I sick with this staph infection but I am also a disabled gentleman with a pressure-sore on my right glut, which means, for all intents and purposes, I am pretty much bed-ridden until this ass-sore heals. I find myself in this position a lot. As a matter of fact, more and more so the older I get. They say our skin gets thinner the older we get. So I am not able to stay up as long and be a wild man like I used to be able to do.

Which brings us to the second part of this exercise, "Review the situation in the context of your Circle of Influence. How could you respond proactively?" Well, instead of playing the roles of the consummate victim of a capricious and uncaring universe or the brave and stoic perpetual martyr, I could respond proactively by doing what I am doing right now: reading The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey, taking The Thirty Day Proactive Test and planning things out so that in the future I do not end up in this position in the first place.

This brings us to the last part of the exercise, "Take several moments and create the experience vividly in your mind, picturing yourself responding proactively. Remind yourself of the gap between stimulus and response." I pretty much am already doing all that. So I do not have to take several moments and create the experience vividly in my mind. I am living it, in real time.

However, I do not recall what the gap between stimulus and response is. So it is time to hit the books and go back to Chapter 1.

 8:09 PM: The Gap Between Stimulus and Response

Now I cannot control everything that is going on around me or even my own health and body to a certain extent, but I am a self-aware being who can look as an observer at my very involvement. I can decide within myself how all of this will affect me. Between what happens to me, or the stimulus, and my response to it, is my freedom or power to choose that response.