Agency

agency, which I think of as something like “manifest determination to make things happen.”

Agency and self-efficacy are deeply intertwined, like the will to act (agency) and the belief that you can succeed (self-efficacy). They reinforce each other in a feedback loop, but they aren’t the same thing.

How They Influence Each Other

1. Self-Efficacy Fuels Agency
   
   
   • If you believe you can accomplish something, you're more likely to take action .
   
   
   • Exa

... See more

A big secret is that you can bend the world to your will a surprising percentage of the time—most people don’t even try, and just accept that things are the way that they are.

People have an enormous capacity to make things happen. A combination of self-doubt, giving up too early, and not pushing hard enough prevents most people from ever reaching... See more

if i'd had more agency when I was younger,

I would have acted on some truly terrible decisions that I may never have recovered from

...which makes me suspicious of agency as the latest all-good panacea

you can be high agency without being highly ambitious. That might describe somebody who is highly agentic in shaping the kind of personal, emotional, or spiritual life they want, but who is not especially motivated to succeed financially or professionally.

When you're agencymaxxing, others become more interested in helping

you because you're a good investment. You, the agencymaxxer, apply a

multiplier to others' help so that their help goes further than if

they applied that help to someone who wastes it by not helping

themself. People like when their help makes a meaningful difference

and they don't like... See more