An increase in daily negative work events is considered detrimental to employees’ goal attainment. Based on frameworks of self-regulation, we argue that action-state orientation moderates this relationship. Whereas action oriented individuals can implicitly refocus on goal pursuit, state-oriented people face difficulties in self-motivation and are more likely to suffer from negative events. In this study, we focus on proactive coping strategies (i.e. change-oriented strategies aimed at preventing the reoccurrence of negative events) that may help state-oriented individuals to better attain their daily goals when negative events increase. Goal attainment may also help them regulate negative emotions elicited by adverse events throughout the work day.