Proactive

This week marks the third week honoring of my New York City internship with Deloitte with their tax and audit functions. How it has already been 21 days since my start date is beyond me. The six o’clock wake up calls, as well as the hour and a half commute can really test your humanity. Getting home around seven-thirty each night, eating dinner and having just enough energy to crawl under the covers seems to be my daily routine of summer thus far. However, as drained as I feel everyday, I still leave the house in the morning with a smile knowing that I have a perfect chance to dip my toes into my potential career path and experience what life after college has in store. The sole reason for obtaining such an opportunity was due to a behavior that everyone on this planet should possess, a proactive one.

In simplistic terms, being proactive means to take control of a particular situation to arrive at a favorable outcome. There are many things in life that you are going to want. It can range from as straightforward as a sandwich for lunch to as complex as a million-dollar mansion with all the amenities imaginable. Crazy enough, regardless of what you desire, you can acquire these tangibles or intangibles with a proactive mindset. Let’s evaluate the two scenarios just discussed.

Most people eat lunch throughout the normal course of a day. If not lunch, perhaps a late breakfast or early dinner. Nonetheless, sandwiches seem logical for any of the meals. The real question is though, when it is time to eat, will you be go-getter and satisfy your hunger? As many of my readers can attest to, if you are at home, you may be too lazy to get up off the couch or bed to make yourself a sandwich. Perhaps, you do not have the necessary ingredients to craft yourself the lunch of champions. Or if you are out, maybe you do not want to spend the $6-$12 on a sandwich. Either or, there are people out there that will not fulfill their hunger. These types of people are NOT proactive, they are reactive. They will sit around waiting for lunch to come to them. If you find yourself similar to the scenes just discussed, please consider the ending advice of this post.

Now for a more reasonable want that most people would dream to have. At one point or another, you will envision yourself with a colossal house with acres of land as far as the eye can see and cars that are manufactured less than the number of fingers you have on your hands. For as distant as this wish may sound, it can be quite realistic. How so, you may ask? All it takes is being a little proactive. Attaining this dream will not happen overnight. A matter of fact, it may take countless years to get to this point, yet everyone is capable of receiving such a prize. The people that you see with these possessions worked many long and painstaking days to get here. Through determination, perseverance and hunger for success, they find themselves today living the lives that many seek. The best part about this is that that can be you.

If I learned anything from attending an amazing university and interning with such a distinguished firm, it is that you have to go out of your way to get what you want. Things are not just going to enter your life all the time and make you happy. Take action with you life, as it will progress fast and before you know it you will have already lost your chance to get what you dreamed of having. Do not live life looking back and wishing you had done something differently. As they say, success arrives for people who do things today that people think about doing tomorrow. With all this being said, take initiative! Be whom you dream to be, reach for heights you have never thought of stretching for, and have a hungry mentality towards every opportunity presented. Because if you do not, you could be stuck paying $6-$12 for that sandwich.