Agentic People

The other day I shared this vulnerability with a friend: “I don’t trust myself in following through in creating an email series (aka lead magnet) by the end of the week”. 

And I had strong evidence supporting this claim, I have been talking about creating something like this for probably more than a year! 

But my friend, unimpressed with my self-loathing, reminded me of this powerful reframe: Our past decisions are not a predictor of our future actions.

Last week we talked about the power of building Main Character Energy. Today, we discuss how our self-perception is directly associated with the number of promises we fulfil (or break) to ourselves.

When you start breaking promises to yourself such as “I am going to write everyday!”, “I am going to start a substack for my creative expression!” or “I am going to post every single day no matter what!”... you start seeing yourself as lazy, unreliable and in general, incompetent in ever becoming successful.

It can even go so far as not trusting yourself anymore to pursue BIG ideas. Hence, you play it small. Keep it safe. Stay in your lane. 

If we want to turn this negative thinking around, the only way through it is to take action as soon as possible. The best kind of people to learn that from, are agentic people.

Agentic comes from agency, the capacity to act or exercise control.

Agentic people are people who pursue one problem or skill at a time, relentlessly, and keep at it even in the face of rejection. Especially in the face of rejection.

Because agentic people know: failure and rejection are the cost of success.

They ask the audacious asks, dream big and regularly question their (often self-imposed) limits. They assume that they will achieve their goal, because thinking in negatives is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

They are great observers and listeners, proficient experimentalists and DIY problem solvers. 

I LOVE that.

While building main character energy focuses on how you perceive yourself (for example feeling like you are meant for something more), cultivating personal agency means believing that you can influence what happens in your life and acting according to it.

The fact that you are reading this email sequence now is testament that we can turn our own beliefs around with action (in fact you are the first one to read this before it becomes my welcome sequence for the newsletter!)

YOU CAN JUST DO THINGS.

Next week we will start plotting little commitments to grow into our most agentic selves.

RECOMMENDED FURTHER READING

You can just do things, by Cate Hall

Keep up the audacity,

Laura