Taking the initiative: how to make what I want happen

Taking the initiative is taking the first step to ask the person we like on a date, but also being able to break the mold and start your own projects. Or be someone proactive and activate that social skill that combines enthusiasm, intuition, creativity and the will to anticipate things and emerge successfully from any difficulty.

Let’s face it…who wouldn’t want all these features? What’s more, is there anyone who has not ever been told that “What you lack is initiative”? Thus, and almost without realizing it, that word becomes a desire, that drive that one wants to integrate into one’s personality and behavior to make what one wants happen.

Virtue, social skill, leadership capacity, etc., we can define this dimension in many ways, but what is always evident is one aspect. There are those who have it and there are those who lack it. When we lack initiative, the reason for this usually lies in personal insecurity and also fear. We fear failing, we are terrified of being exposed, exposing ourselves and having others discover that we are fallible.

However, one thing is clear: There is no difference between staying where we are and failing. We are still in the same place, in the same territory, the one where nothing happens, where we do not advance socially, emotionally or professionally. Therefore, if we want reality to improve and achieve what we have in our minds and hearts, we must do it. You have to take the initiative.

Keys to taking the initiative and achieving what you want

At some point in our lives, we have experienced that feeling: that of wanting to do something but not knowing how or, simply, not daring. Asking our boss for a raise, telling someone we like him, making a change in our life, starting a new stage… Taking the initiative requires more than courage.

It means, above all, having a disposition and an action plan. Because beyond what we may believe, the person with initiative does not improvise, they plan. Something like this undoubtedly requires fine-tuning appropriate cognitive, emotional and behavioral processes. Let’s learn a series of strategies that will allow us to learn to take the initiative.

Emotions tuned to the goal

There are emotions that will be disruptive and not facilitating. Taking the initiative often causes two very specific emotions to appear: fear and shame.. We fear failing and exposing ourselves. These are going to be our worst enemies and as such we must deactivate them and reorient them.

How? establishing a dialogue with ourselves to remind ourselves of what we deserve. We must be clear that fear and shame disable us as people, turn off our potential and distort our identity. Instead, There is an exceptional emotion that always facilitates the initiative: enthusiasm.

Plan, observe, take advantage of the opportunity

Taking the initiative is not synonymous with jumping into the pool on the count of three. Sometimes the pool may be empty and we may make a mistake that we could have foreseen.

Having initiative means taking into account the context, making predictions for the futureobserve the situation from various angles and design a plan.Let’s avoid leaving anything to chance. To achieve what we want, luck can accompany us, but we must always keep in mind that luck is created by oneself with effort, work and originality.

To take the initiative, turn to allies and mentors who can help you

When it comes to creating the present and shaping the future we want, the responsibility in each process is ours. However, this does not mean that we cannot count on the help and advice of an expert. Surely there is someone in your environment who can do their part to facilitate some step for you.

What’s more, you may have someone who has been through the same thing and can advise you. Keep an open mind, listen to opinionstake into account other perspectives to make the decision that you create by combining all possible data.

Prepare the way, every great victory starts from small battles won every day

People with initiative do not improvise and do not risk everything at once. That is to say, If I like a person I can’t just jump in and tell them what I feel from one day to the next. The work to conquer part of everyday seduction. There where we can win over someone day by day.

The same thing happens in any context. I can’t ask my boss for a raise if I haven’t first shown him what I’m worth.. Nor can I make a radical change in my life if I don’t close some doors and open others. The key is to go little by little and inject charisma and ingenuity into each situation, demonstrating in each context what we are worth and what we are.

There will be times when we must take a step back. But doing so is good, it means learning something we didn’t know, calibrating new options and seeing everything with a greater perspective to gain greater momentum.

In essence, Taking the initiative is not just about bravery: it is about knowing how to plan, being patient and managing our emotions well. so that they inoculate us with encouragement and enthusiasm. In this skill or psychological competence, it is not useful to act on impulse, it is useful to act with reflexivity and intelligence.

We can all train ourselves to have greater initiative and thus achieve the moon if that is what we want or create the life we ​​want.

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