On agency

Growing your sense of agency leads you to see more degrees of freedom in your life. The painful corollary of that is: when you see that you are freer than you thought, you also have more responsibility. But once you accept the responsibility, that is the real gift, not the freedom.

I was realizing how many personal and interpersonal issues ultimately traced back to feeling like one has little to no agency. Everything from confidence to motivation can be traced back to agency, at least to some extent.

Growing your sense of agency leads you to see more degrees of freedom in your life. The painful corollary of that is: when you see that you are freer than you thought, you also have more responsibility. But once you accept the responsibility, that is the real gift, not the freedom.