We all know creative people, those who are continuously engaged in activities and who work hard to achieve their goals. To be proactive is to go out and look for what you want and not wait for it to come by magic , because opportunities don’t come by themselves and luck has to be sought.

How Proactive People Are

Proactive people create their own destiny and pursue their ambitions . In the following lines you can find a list with the characteristics of an ambitious person.

1. Connect with your needs and desires

Proactive people are people who are always on the move, and that is because they are motivated by something . They are individuals who seek their own self-realization and therefore connect with their needs and desires. When a person is in tune with himself, he enters a state of flow and knows which direction to pull in. That is why it is easy for them to be in continuous movement.

2. They know their strengths, but also their weaknesses

But these people not only know their needs and desires, they know what their strengths and weaknesses are, which is positive as long as one accepts one’s own weaknesses and focuses on one’s strengths in order to move forward. This is key because it helps to trace the path and not get stuck in those weaknesses that one possesses .

3. Have long-term goals

Knowing oneself in every way is the first step to knowing what goals one wants to pursue and what objectives one has in life, and visualizing a future that a person desires is essential to being motivated and to knowing the direction in which one wants to go. Proactive people have long term goals .

4. But also in the short term: living in the present

However, one cannot just have long-term goals, because to achieve great objectives one must go step by step. This can only be achieved if, in addition to the long-term goals, one has short and medium-term goals . Living in the present is necessary in order not to feel frustrated and to move forward on the path that one has set oneself.

5. High self-confidence

Self-confidence is a concept about which Albert Bandura , a psychologist who proposed the Theory of Social Learning, theorized. According to him, the beliefs of self-confidence or self-efficacy determine to a great extent our success and our motivation, since they are the assessments we make of our capacities or abilities with respect to a specific task or activity. Proactive people have a high degree of self-confidence, which helps them to overcome the obstacles they encounter in their daily lives.

6. Planning skills

Proactive people are those who do not wait for things to happen, but go out and look for them. To do this, they have objectives and plan the steps to follow to achieve them. Good planning avoids frustration and helps to give feedback, which allows to be motivated throughout the process of acquiring goals .

7. They are self-motivating

Because proactivity has a lot to do with motivation . Being a person who knows how to be motivated is key to not giving in to difficult situations. Self-motivation is one of the components of emotional intelligence, and it is a capacity that some people have to provide themselves with self-interest and the necessary drive even in difficult situations and in the face of adversity.

8. They are not afraid of uncertainty and change

The fear of uncertainty is one of the main fears that human beings can experience . This fear can be really disabling and interferes with a subject’s personal growth. In fact, it is considered a limiting belief and can make a person not take action despite wishing for something with all their might.

  • If you want to know more about what fear of uncertainty is, you can read our article: “Fear of uncertainty: 8 keys to overcome it”

9. They live outside their comfort zone

Fear of uncertainty can lead a person to live in the comfort zone . A psychological space in which an individual feels more comfortable and secure, since uncertainty can often produce anxiety about the unknown. Proactive people are not afraid to live far from the comfort zone and, in addition, they like to experiment with new things.

10. They evaluate different alternatives and solve problems

Some individuals tend to avoid dealing with problems, because they believe this way they avoid discomfort . Proactive people, on the other hand, look difficult situations in the face and seek solutions to the problems that occur in their day-to-day life. In fact, they have a great capacity to propose different alternatives when it comes to providing solutions.

11. They learn from mistakes

Proactive people learn from mistakes, because they think that these are opportunities to grow . Life has good moments and bad moments, but there is no point in getting stuck in the past and lamenting over situations that don’t turn out the way we wanted. To move forward, it is necessary to accept and treat oneself with compassion.

12. They are persistent

Persistent people are those who overcome the obstacles they encounter along the way, who remain at the bottom of the barrel despite the adversities . They work hard until they succeed, that is, they are always on the move and do not stop. Persistence is one of the keys to success. Without a doubt, there is a close relationship between being persistent and being proactive.