Reaction is cultural; how we act when something has happened to us, and often the reactions are automatic, cultural, embedded. They don’t so much speak to our mindset but to our culture and upbringing. Things done reactively illuminate mindset the least.
Attraction is intentional; it’s created when our intentions are clear, and desired by others, or we show attraction to others when their intentions align with our and are clear.
Interaction is situational; we interact in situations in ways often driven by the situation. We’ll offer help to strangers when their situation is perilous but don’t when it’s not, for example. We reply to blogs when they interest us, and don’t when they don’t.
Proaction is aspirational; We do things off our own bat when we aspire to achieve, to make a difference, to change things. Things done proactively illuminate the underlying mindset the most.
When we see one person’s actions as proactive, because we can’t see the situational, intentional, and cultural drivers we interpret the mindset, positive or negative, and we’ll probably get it wrong. We may see closed selection and assume it’s an indicator of mindset, when it may simply be a choice made through attraction or reaction. We may misunderstand phraseology and see a spontaneous comment as indicating emotional states that are actually reactive and cultural, words related to love and hate are often very regional for example and may be misread in other locations and cultures. Situational responses can be seen as defensive reactions.
Whenever we see behaviour that we don’t understand it’s often driven by a misunderstanding about the Re-Att-Inter-Pro continuum, and if so it’s worth pausing and testing personal assumptions about your own perceptions against these attributes. What is your experience, of mistakes, and of successes.
