The Power of Agency: The 7 Principles to Conquer Obstacles, Make Effective Decisions, and Create a Life on Your Own Terms

<b>I requested this book on Netgalley in return for an honest review</b><br /><br />Extremely helpful! While reading this I was somewhat struggling with a certain part of my life and this helped me when it came to making practical decisions that are good for me.<br />The book I reviewed before this one (The New Happiness) was a more spiritual and emotional guideline, this book gave me more practical advice, like how to respond in certain situations and what ways of thinking you can use to stay in touch with your own agency.<br /><br />I am someone who can easily loose my agency. I can be naive and I am easy to influence. <br />It's my goal this year to be more aware of that and get my agency back. This book is definitely a step in the right direction.<br /><br />The writing is easy to follow and the use of real cases is very helpful to grasp what it's about a lot more.<br /><br />I would definitely recommend this book to people who struggle with taking control (back) over their own life.

A good and much needed book for today's society. If you are experiencing overwhelm or anxiety this book is for you. If you are not, this book will still help you increase your agency and feel more in control. The book will also help you help those around you that are overwhelmed.<br /><br />Seven Principles<br />1. Reduce stimuli -- put away the phone.<br />2. Associate selectively -- choose friends wisely.<br />3. Move -- Be healthy<br />4. Position self as a learned -- be humble and view failure as a chance to learn.<br />5. Manage your emotions and beliefs -- you can control emotions and beliefs<br />6. Listen to your intuition but not too much.<br />7. Deliberate then act

Overwhelm is becoming more and more widespread in our fast-paced, technology driven world. Napper and Rao argue that a mindful return to strengthening personal agency is the antidote. They discuss seven empowering principles: control stimuli, associate selectively, move, position yourself as a learner, manage your emotions and beliefs, check your intuition, deliberate and then act.<br /><br />Why I started this book: Eye catching title and a shorter audio. I was ready and eager for both.<br /><br />Why I finished it: So fascinating to see the secular and psychological background and approach to topics that I have been taught all my life in a religious setting. The different context really emphasized my need to return to certain religious practices, like having a "Sabbath" away from distractions and rushing to catch up or get ahead, the commitment to life long learning and taking time to ponder.

For as long as people have goals there will always be a sense of being overwhelmed and this book provides insights, practical approaches that target both thought and behavior to cope with whatever comes our way on a daily basis. <br />What I loved most about this book is how well it is structured, the authors take their time in explaining and outlining what agency is and factors that influence it in modern times and how best to go about living your best life. <br />It's also great that they do not make promises, but rather invite and encourage the reader to take notes, ask questions, reflect on any insights as they read along.<br />Thank you Netgalley for the eARC, this is a timely read given how much pressure we face today both in our personal and public lives.

Decent book, a bit clinical but had some great lessons

It took me a *very* long time to get through this book. Part of the reason is that it's dense with good information, but the other part is that a lot of it is information I had read or heard before, and sometimes I got tired of that and put it down for a while.<br /><br />Despite much of it seeming familiar, I did make -- according to Goodreads -- 77 highlights, so I did find many things worth flagging.<br /><br />The unique thing about it, and it's primary value, is that it takes a lot of familiar themes and puts them together under the concept of "Agency" -- the ability of a person to truly act according to their own sound decision making and in accordance with their authentic desires, not ruled by emotion, peer pressure, family, social media, or etc. Which is harder than it sounds. A lot of us strive for independence, but don't think beyond being materially self-sufficient. It's important to be mentally self-aware and self-sufficient as well. <br /><br />The authors bolster their work by citing both peer reviewed research and their own experiences as consultants, which makes the book even more dense, but enhances the sense of reliability. <br /><br />I think this would be a great book for families, especially those with adolescents, to read together and discuss. It could provide a common language that could enhance communication around stressors and impulses. Younger people could learn a lot as they get started in life, and older people will get a chance to re-consider how they perceive and process information and come to decisions.

Agency is the feeling that you are making meaningful decisions towards your goals. Feeling overwhelmed, anxious, or depressed is associated with low agency. I bought this book because I was feeling overwhelmed. Some of the tips in this book have helped, such as leaving my phone out of sight when I take breaks, but overall the book felt a bit empty.<br /><br />I'm disappointed by the fact that most of the principles and tips in the book were justified via anecdote. Compared to books like The How of Happiness by Sonja Lyubomirsky or Self-compassion by Kristen Neff, which give advice inspired by real experiments with interventions, the research in this book feels shallow.<br /><br />The density of practical tips was quite low. For every tip, there was maybe 10 minutes of story telling to justify it.<br /><br />There is value in the book. I don't doubt that the 7 principles are correlated with high agency. I just feel like now I need to go find 7 more books with research on interventions to make progress.

I picked this up at random from the library and was pleasantly surprised. The title sounded interesting so I figured I’d give it a chance. Although these self-help type books can be pretty hit or miss, I actually ended up really liking this. I think it’s easy (for me at least) to get overwhelmed by work and other mundane to-do list items which can lead to anxiety and procrastination, while not allowing yourself time to reflect on the bigger picture or analyze longer term goals in a focused and sufficient manner. I felt like the principles laid out in the book gave good advice for addressing these issues and they gave me a lot of good/actionable ideas. <br /><br />I’d rate it higher but there were a lot of superfluous examples from their work that weren’t relevant to me and that I mostly skimmed.

Authors do a good job of laying out the problem: Many if us feel a sense of overwhelm and lack of agency. It may be that their “solutions,” the seven principles they lay put in the book, are the right ones. But some of these principles are quite complex and involved. For example, chapter 5 is about managing one’s emotions. Most of us would agree that doing this will lead to a greater sense of agency. They give examples of their clients learning how to do this, but not really a clear plan of how any reader can do this. <br /><br />So the book helped to clarify when we don’t feel agency and why. But was less clear on what to do about that.

Nothing new, same information I've read in all the other Self Help books out there. Mediocre with new labels.