When we react to something or someone, it’s exactly that: a re-action.  We repeat what we have always done, suggesting limited choice.

When we respond to something or someone, we’re considering the options and making the best choice – usually connected to past experience.

When we initiate, despite the something or someone happening to us, it’s likely we have travelled to the future.  We imagine and persevere towards creating what it is we see and does not presently exist.

I have a feeling Nassim Taleb would call the first fragility, the second robustness, and the third antifragility.*

‘the vast changes required by a regenerative society will not be achieved just be reacting to crises after they arrive.  They will require inspiration, aspiration, imagination, patience, perseverance, and no small amount of humility.’**

(*See Nassim Taleb’s Antifragile.)
(**From Peter Senge’s The Necessary Revolution.  This comes from a captivating introduction on moving from problem solving to creating.)