Personal power
What power do we have?
Recently I planned to write a research proposal for a PhD. The project was about agency EG our known mental and physical ability to make change (no stress there’s more on this in a bit). Late to the game, I had a grand total of 7 days. Reading the material, it became apparent that:
A week timespan is nowhere near enough to write a 3 year research proposal.
Starting from scratch with the literature there was simply no way I would be able to make such a tight deadline with a concise, presentable or fathomable research idea.
I was left with a sense of powerlessness and quickly realised I needed to engage my own sense of agency in a very different way, aside from sponging up years of cognitive science before splurging out a haphazard proposal. Even when reading the project description it was apparent this PhD was not something I was inherently invested in at my core (obv a prerequisite for an enjoyable, research-heavy 3 year experience). Nothing lost from my 48 hour mad rush for dense neuroscientific knowledge, this preliminary PhD reading granted me some significant insight.
What the fuck is agency?
Your sense of agency is your capacity to act - it’s what you know, believe and feel you can do. Not the modelling kind, this type of agency is about the human experience. Defined as an “action or intervention producing a particular effect”, think of agency as the awareness of the control you have. Control can be repressive so let’s talk about power: We have power on the inside (implicit) and on the outside (explicit).
Measures of Agency suggests that our sense of agency can be measured by these 4 distinct areas
Taking these into account, we can breakdown the different types of power we have. First, looking inside, your implicit agency ensures you have the mental capacity to fathom and feel your power in the first place (phenomenal agency). You’re also able to recognise that you are in the driving seat to make the required change (ability agency). Looking outward, you are aware that you can act physically to make active change (bodily agency) and you’re able to recognise that these actions can affect other things too (external agency).
Conscious awareness of the sense of agency is great, but being human, our awareness can slip sometimes. When the slip leads to a slide, I find it handy to check back in with these distinct and defined ways in which we all, for sure, no if’s, no but’s, have power. Not just at our finger tips but physically in them too - power of mind is powerful stuff.
Phenomenal agency royalty
Now we’ve understood our sense of agency as the awareness of our capacity, I’d like to tap into The Mothership, phenomenal agency. This area of agency relies on a belief in our ability and is about our feelings in the matter. If we feel a certain way, it’s often this which will spark us into doing something (think gut feelings, instinct or intuition).
So, how to induce this mother power we all have? How can we ensure the cogs turn in the right way? Two big players in the phenomenal agency game are responsibility and accountability. Ladies, gentlemen and everyone else, please welcome to the stage, phenomenal agency royalty, Queen Responsible & King Accountable.
Responsibility
Ladies first, Queen Responsible is all about pressing go, implementing action and mediating your ongoing duty to complete a given task, goal or intention.
Accountability
King Accountable, now he’s all about ownership. Taking accountability means recognising that you as an individual are answerable for your actions, words and decisions.
Rarely separate, the Queen & King hold hands. As interlinked fingers do, these guys support each other. While Queeny works as a driver to make stuff happen, our King takes the blame and/or credit for the end result.
So, no PhD but we sure learned something useful. Your sense of agency is personal. You choose how you want to play this game. Nobody can or will do it for you. Your decisions and actions are your responsibility and taking accountability for them is key.
Holdup! Rather than see this as a breeding ground for unease, I want you to open your eyes instead to a space of existential elation. Demand empowered and liberated feels for yourself. Long live the Queen and King on your journey and be proud of your achievements as you go. All good news y’all, own your show. Run it. This is your space, stage and stadium to do you. So what are you waiting for? Go do it.
