Which one are you?

A thermometer measures the ambient temperature of its milieu. It checks and reports. A thermostat on the other hand responds to its environment. It also checks, but then it makes little adjustments… it actually influences the environment.

You might say that a thermometer is a rather passive receptor, and a thermostat is a dynamic actor. Both are responding in some way to what is going on around them, but in different ways.

There is a third way of behaving, and that is the type that initiates. They anticipate that something needs to change and respond to the environment by making things happen.