Proactive vs Reactive

These two words can and will have a dramatic effect on a person’s life. Sure, we can choose to be either or and at times even both, depending on the situation. But when it comes to livelihood, quality of life, prosperity and health, being proactive is the only way to go.

How many of us would really take a reactive stance on family safety, job security or on our health? I seriously doubt any of us would see a huge sore or suffer chronic chest pain and say, “let’s wait and see what happens.” No, we would go get the problem checked out. However, many of us tend to take a reactive stance when it comes to planning our long-term health. I am as guilty as any on this issue. Proactive individuals would eat right, get exercise and maintain that healthy lifestyle to ensure their health has a better shot and remain healthy. Whereas others, including myself, don’t do those things then we react when the doctor says, “You have high blood pressure, or you’re a diabetic,” or any number of things we could have prevented by taking a proactive stance towards our health.

Well, the same is true about our community. What will Cibola County be like in five years, 10 years or even 20 years?

What stance are our leaders taking about this?

Hopefully, our leaders – county, city and village – are thinking about this and are seriously looking at taking proactive stance. Doing things like ramping up the economic development plans they have in place. Seeking other opportunities for Cibola Citizens to stay in our community and not having to move away for work.

I hope that our leaders and our citizens will seriously ponder on taking a proactive approach for the future of this great county and community we all call home. Step up and get involved. Let your voice be heard. We as a community can affect change but we must take a proactive stance for our futures.

Our future here in Cibola County is the responsibility of the leaders and community members living here now. It’s up to us to plan and achieve things for our children so they too can have a future in the community we grew up and live in.

There are a lot of things that we need to address so the future is bright for the next generation of Cibola Citizens. Things like infrastructure, economic devel opment, quality of life, education and employment.

The Grants and Cibola County area has had its fair share of great economic paydays, from the mining industry to the prison industry and several others from the past. And it seems to me that our area or the leaders of our area tend to put all its eggs into one basket, like the uranium basket or the prison basket or the logging basket from way back when. I do not understand this method, I don’t know, maybe I am not supposed to understand it, but to me it’s ludicrous to plan for a future this way.

We have all the things needed to attract new economic development to our area. We have land, water, a major interstate, a major railroad and hungry citizens looking for an opportunity to increase their standard of living.

I hope that one day, the county, city and village will come together and create an economic development team, a group of think tanks, that can search the entire country for businesses, companies or entities that are looking to relocate, expand or start up. This is a job for a team, with the support of the community. Make a push for these things to happen. Get involved at county, city and village meetings and voice your opinion about these things. Because at the end of the day, if all of these things do happen, there will be more jobs, more tax revenue, which translates into more opportunity to bring in more economic development to our area.

Happy reading Cibola.