proactive
adj.taking action to make things happen instead of waiting for them to happen to you. You use this to describe someone who plans ahead to avoid future problems.
adj.acting in anticipation of future problems, needs, or changes. Often used in professional contexts to describe a self-initiated and future-oriented mindset.
“She took a proactive approach to her health by exercising daily.”
“The company is being proactive by fixing the software bug before any customers notice a problem.”
“Adopting a proactive stance on environmental regulations allowed the firm to transition its manufacturing processes long before the new laws became mandatory, giving them a significant competitive advantage.”
Often used in professional or self-improvement contexts; frequently modifies nouns like 'approach', 'role', or 'measure'.
When describing the subject of the action, 'proactive' typically takes the preposition 'about' or 'in', rather than 'to'.
“There’s no harm in being proactive: you’ll know people looking for houses as early as the November before.”
“By way of contrast, Manchester United have been much more proactive in the market this summer.”
From pro- + active; originally coined 1933 by Paul Whiteley and Gerald Blankfort in a psychology paper, used in technical sense. Used in a popular context and sense (courage, perseverance) in 1946 book Man’s Search for Meaning by neuropsychiatrist Viktor Emil Frankl, in the context of dealing with the Holocaust, as contrast with reactive.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.