Group 1, Day 2, Habit 1

The return rate of the participation of my sharing session is not that bad, only 1 drop-out from the Day1 session. I am thankful for these 7 colleagues of mine who sacrificed their lunch-hour to hear my humble public speaking skill.

We started the session with a sharing of experience. One friend shared a difficult time he's having with an inconsiderate colleague he called 'monster'. I tried practice emphatic listening, but I think I failed miserably! We exchanged stories about how should one handle people who don't seem to be interested to seek win-win. It's either their way, or the highway kinda guy. Since no solution from the discussion, I suggested to go thru the lesson from Habit 1 to see if we can figure out a way to address such situation proactively.

Below are what we've covered today:

Habit 1: Be Proactive

• Common human challenge we can address with Habit 1
• See-Do-Get
• Forest Gump vs. Lt. Dan Taylor
• Victor E. Frankl
• “How to be proactive?”
- Choose proactive response
- Use proactive language
- Expand your Circle of Influence
- Becoming the transition person
• Review See-Do-Get
• Challenge of the week (from the 7 Habit book)

During my preparation for the sharing session, there's only one image that kept up creeping up in my head when I read about being proactive, the habit of choice - Forest Gump. He may have an IQ of 75, but he sure is a lot wiser about life compared to Lt. Dan Taylor. He seems to be able to separate himself (more subconsciously than consciously, I guess) from his genetic make-up, his surroundings, his circumstances. Lt.Dan was bitter and sour and blame it on God for not killing him in Vietnam, yet too coward to end his own life. In a weird way, Lt.Dan learns to pick up and find himself back with the help of a 'stupid' guy like Forest. I guess, stupid is stupid does. I couldn't help to relate the two main characters in the movie to illustrate the opposite of proactiveness & reactiveness. I sure hope my fellow friends could grasp my intention.

I now realized how much I idolize Forest's mum. I wish I can manage raise such challenging child into a well-grown, fine adult like Forest. She truly is a lot of woman.