Author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change, Stephen Covey is a world-renowned author and speaker on leadership.  While his "list-style" book is of the type I don't prefer, this is certainly an exception.  Covey cuts through our excuses, laser focuses on the issues, and, most importantly, shows us how to change.  

The choice to be proactive or reactive is ours.  As Covey would say, we must make our own "weather".  In order to do that, we must recognize we are actually outside in the elements and that it is our choice to be there.  We must own where we are and only then can we do something about our situation.