Talent and intelligence are abundant. What’s rare is agency: the motivation to act, the courage to risk, the will to shape the world.
Agency is a powerful force that separates those who create change from those who merely possess potential.
Agency is a function of several key elements:
- Internal locus of control - Believing your actions determine outcomes rather than external forces controlling your fate
- Self-efficacy - The confidence that you can successfully execute behaviors needed to produce specific results
- Intrinsic motivation - Being driven by personal interest, enjoyment, and meaning rather than external rewards
- Action bias - The tendency to act rather than remain passive when faced with uncertainty
- Comfort with risk - Willingness to move forward despite the possibility of failure
Or simpler: Agency = (Clarity × Self-Trust) + Reps × Discomfort Tolerance
Nothing is impossible with sufficient agency. Ask your favorite LLM how to build it.
To build agency practically:
Start small and build momentum. Take on achievable challenges that stretch you slightly. Each successful action builds confidence for the next, larger step.
Develop decision-making muscles. Practice making choices quickly and accepting the consequences, good or bad. The skill of decision-making improves with use.
Cultivate accountability structures. Find mentors, peers, or communities that expect action from you and hold you to your commitments.
Analyze and learn from failure. Treat setbacks as data, not personal indictments. Extract lessons that improve future attempts.
Identify and address limiting beliefs. Our narratives about what's possible often constrain our actions more than external reality.