Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Proactive Chain

I have been studying the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, along with the books on kids, teens, and families from the same series. In the books, the first habit is to be proactive; to choose how things affect us instead of letting things be in charge of how we react. Another spin on being proactive is to see something that needs done and to do it instead of waiting to be told to do it. In other words we are taking control of our lives, our surroundings and how we take things in.

The boys and I made a paper chain with 100 links. We hung it on the wall where we see it often. Every time the boys do something without being asked I tell them to take a link off of the chain. When they have an argument and they can figure it out on their own they can take a few links off of the chain. Whenever I see them do something that I think is proactive I have them tear a link.

I have seen so many great things since the inception of the Proactive Chain. My boy came in the other day with a handful of garbage he picked up and I made him smile by letting him tear of a link of the chain. Quarrels are being figured out with out me, and chores that aren't even that kids responsibility are being attended to. It is magical!

I forgot to mention that when the chain is gone we will all be going swimming. It is a goal we are all working towards and one persons victory is every one's. It is beautiful.

In my Thursday study group someone made the comment that taking apart the chain is like unbinding ones self from being reactive. The more things we do to be proactive and choose our responses to things around us, the less reactive we are and thus the more free we are. Taking a link off the chain with each proactive thing we do is like breaking the binding reactive chain.

2 comments:

  1. I'm going to try this with the girls. This is something that I have been looking for that will encourage everyone to work together and be more service oriented. Our reward is going to be ice skating.

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  2. Hey! :) I was just reading through the blog and thought I'd comment. It was nice to see you guys at the park the other day! :) E-mail me sometime and it would be nice to do something together. waay2busy (at) hotmail (dot) com

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