Agency an Overview

Definitions

• Capacity of an individual to act independently, make choices, and influence their own life and environment.
• Agency is about having the power to shape one’s life - whether through small, everyday decisions or large, life-altering choices. It goes beyond having options but actively engaging with those options.
• Agency is the bridge between thought and action, enabling individuals to interact with the world, pursue their goals, and assert their presence.
• Agency is the capacity to act independently and make free choices that affect one’s circumstances, combined with the ability to effectively express and advocate for those choices.
• Agency is the bridge between thought and action. Explicitly when those actions are aligned with one’s self-interest, their goals, or allow them to assert their presence and advocate for themselves.
• 

Thoughts

• Agency is our ability to act on our own beliefs
• High agency individuals may rely on low agency individuals to succeed
• For many, low agency is a thinking style created though self limiting beliefs and underused resources
• Agency is a collection of skills related to discipline, wisdom, knowledge, courage, future-self alignment,
• Going to college fresh out of high school is low agency
• The ability to see an expansive scope of the world is important. You need to be able to move beyond near term temptations and attention leeches.

Expression

• Choosing to end relationships that don’t align with your values
• Setting boundaries around post work communication
• Taking initiative to build new skills before they’re required
• Addressing conflicts rather than hoping they resolve themselves
• A patient researching treatment options and advocating for themselves
• Community members organizing to affect local government
• Starting a difficult conversation
• Creating opportunities rather than waiting for them
• Choosing to change careers despite sunk costs
• Starting a business
• Taking initiative rather than waiting for direction
• Resisting external pressures that conflict with values
• Creating your own learning path rather than following preset curricula

Lack of

If you’re concerned about having a lack of agency it might show up as,

• An external locus of control.
• You have a fear of failure.
• You avoid making decisions or default to having others choose for you.
• You rely on others to tell you what to do.
• You rely on others to solve your problems.
• You rehearse defeatist narratives.
• Asks for permission rather than taking initiative.
• Hesitates to voice dissent or disagreement.

Beliefs

You need to be able to challenge limiting beliefs. I can’t vs what if I could Beliefs shape the mindset that makes action feel meaningful and possible

• I can influence my environment
• I am responsible for my choices
• Change is possible
• I deserve to be heard and respected
• You can just do things

Related Skills, Traits

Skills provide the tools to act and traits provide the foundation for effort.

• Self-efficacy
  • Belief in one’s ability to succeed
• Courage
  • Willingness to take risks and face your fears
• Self-advocacy
  • Treating yourself and having others treat you with respect
• Discipline
  • Willpower and self-control to continue working without incentives
• Locus of control
  • Knowledge of what’s under your control.
  • Knowledge of luck
• Decision Making
  • Weighing options and assessing risk
• Emotion Regulation
  • Managing emotions to stay focused especially under duress.
• Goal-Setting
  • Long-term thinking
• Communication
  • The ability to express your desires and boundaries.
• Introspection
  • Looking inward to understand what is meaningful to pursue
• Intentionality
  • Actions are driven by purpose and goals.
• Self-reflection
  • The capacity to evaluate one’s actions and motivations
• Autonomy
  • The ability to act according to one’s own will and values.
• Strategic thinking
  • Actionable plans
• Resourcefulness
  • Finding creative ways to achieve goals and desired outcomes

How do people gain agency?

• High Agency can be induced by spending enough time around high agency people.
• Agency can be induced by hearing the stories of high agency people. Give people a broader view of what they are capable of.
• People become high agency under duress.
• “what would you be doing if you were one of the highest agency people on earth? What would a normal day look like for you?”
• “What would you do if you had 10x the agency you do?”
• Cognitive reframing; from “cant” to “what if I could”
• Desperation
• Practice
• ADHD medication
• Align with your future self
• Set expectations about the highest version of yourself
• Self-delusion
• Realizing most things are your fault
• Increasing locus of control
• Reduce distraction and dopamine drips
• Removing the mental blocks; fear of failure or outcomes, past traumas, social stigma, shame, internalized guilt.
• Infect them with your perspective. The downsides of straggling, the upsides of pulling ahead. https://x.com/cool_junk_1000/status/1856789901985161454
• Existential threat, a new responsibility, or a great curiosity https://x.com/runaway_vol/status/1856794451378606449
• Psychedelics (?)
• Hitting rock bottom (Brian Johnson)
• Put them in a leadership position (around other low agency individuals)
• Give them a taste of victory and they’ll crave glory forever https://x.com/jiratickets/status/1856836839778197822
• Agency is a muscle
• ![[Pasted image 20250210134002.png]]

Practicing Agency

Every Day Practice

• You’re in a restaurant bathroom. They’ve run out of paper towels. Instead of wiping your hands on your pants you open the cabinet and replenish the paper towels for yourself and future folk.
• Ignoring the tipping sign.
• Ask a flight attendant for extra snacks
• Calling a new doctor
• Choose what you’ll eat every night for a week (if with a partner)
• Returning a poorly done meal or drink
• Reaching out to people. Cold calling, cold emails, message on a social media platform.
• Negotiating a price
• Speaking up in a meeting
• Declining an invitation outright (no hedging)
• Asking for help
• Making a return
• Asking for clarification
• Shifting tables and chairs around for you and your party at a gathering so everyone can sit together

Generalized Practice

• Choosing what language is appropriate to use rather than letting society dictate for you.
• Pursuing your interests and passions rather than worrying about how others will view you.
• Doing what’s right instead of the bare minimum

Tweets

Books

• The War of Art - Overcoming resistance
• Tempo - Decision making & Strategic Thinking
• The Marshmallow Test - Discipline & Willpower

Quotes

• “i’m scared that leaving someone off the list will be hurtful, since ‘agency’ is rapidly becoming synonymous with ‘intrinsically valuable.’”
• “I can’t decide if agency means someone’s ability to make big things happen or their ability to make what they want to happen happen.”
• “Cursed. We can’t force them to have agency, because that would completely destroy the point of agency lmao” https://x.com/wordgrammer/status/1856796893763838386

Questions

• Is agency contagious?
  • Can one person’s agency inspire or erode others? Protests, whistleblowers
• Can agency become delusion?
  • Do beliefs like the positivity movement take agency too far? Is there a limit to how agentic beliefs can improve your life?
• Are you always agentic?
  • Are there times in life when we’re more or less agentic? What about within the same day?
• Is agency cringe?
  • Does agency necessitate making mistakes or looking foolish?
• Does ignorance override agency?
  • How do children’s lack of limitations impact their agency? Do young people and amateurs find it easier to exert agency?
• Does agency have a cost?
  • Does asserting agency imply a sacrifice? Do you need to trade off relationships or comfort?
• Is non-action a form of agency?
  • Can choosing not to act; Buddhist detachment, strategic silence, hunger strikes be a form of agency?