The Power of Agency

Agency is having the feeling that you’re in control of the situation at hand, and of yourself.

This post is a review of the book “The Power of Agency”, and they offer 7 steps for you to regain this sense of control

  1. Keep a clear head and control the amount of stimuli you get
  2. Associate selectively with people
  3. Exercise and move
  4. Always position yourself as a learner no matter where you are
  5. Keep your emotions in check
  6. Learn how to read your intuition
  7. Deliberate before acting

Keeping a clear head

Practice meditation

Dont multitask

Filter your sources of information

Reduce junk information (social media)

Put away your phone. Far far away.

A traditional pen and paper brings more clarity as opposed to typing

Embrace boredom, and use it as a moment for self reflection

Associate Selectively

You have Mirror neurons. Mix around with positive people, and you will mirror them

Other people have Mirror neurons. Act positively and others will follow suit

Dont fall into the herd mentality, and disassociate yourself from negative emotions

Learn to say No

Being unpopular is okay

Make or break unhealthy relationships

Exercise and Move

Walk more

Stand more

Learn to understand the signals your body is giving you (Hungry? Tired?)

Go and experience new places and cultures

Make sleep a priority

Always be Learning

Pursue new knowledge not within your domain

Learn to embrace failure in learning

Find out what kind if learner are you

Get feedback from others

Bounce and voice out your thought chains and get validation

Look from other peoples perspective

Keep Your Emotions In Check

Values are not Beliefs. Values are more general. Beliefs are more specific

Tear down misconstructed beliefs from the past. They may not be valid

Identify emotions with names and words

Look at the grander scheme of things

Channel your emotions somewhere


I personally didn’t like this chapter, because I find the lessons quite gray and not very concrete.

It seems to just say, trust your heart, which is, to me, one of the worse advice to give anyone.


Dont be seduced by shortcuts

Name your mental steps to your conclusion

Question the decision you made

Stay open to alternatives

Ask yourself 3 questions for each decision

  1. How did I arrive to that decision
  2. What other alternatives are there
  3. How am I feeling during the decision making process

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