Or does it feel like sometimes the power and control is in someone else’s hands?
Having a sense of agency is necessary in your life to feel secure in whatever you are doing. Especially when you are working towards your purpose. Because the road towards your purpose takes more effort and consciousness than going along with what others expect from you. And without having a sense of agency, the odds of succumbing to fear and doubt are higher.
“The Man who says he can, and the man who says he cannot … both are right.”
Confucious
If you don’t believe you can do it, you probably won’t.
So what happens when you loose your sense of agency? You loose the feeling of control. And when you loose your feeling of control, you try to regain that control in other ways. Often not within yourself, but in others.
What happens then, is you become dependent on others for your sense of prupose and happiness, instead of being able to rely on yourself for this. And when something goes wrong, we see ourselves as the victim.
One recent example of placing control in others have been the Dutch elections last week. The Boeren Burger Beweging has become, for the first time ever, the biggest party in all provinces and in most regional water authorities in the Netherlands as a newcomer. And why is that?
One of the hottest discussions in the Netherlands is the nitrogen emission reduction. This has its origin more than 20 years ago, when the Dutch government encouraged farmers to pursue scale enlargement while adressing the associated nitrogen emissions at a later stage. Well, the later stage is now and scientists have raised the alarm about the devastating effect on nature.
A drastic reduction – read system change – is required. The government announced radical plans resulting in a reduction in the farmers’ livestock of up to 40 to 50%! The farmers understandably went on the barricades as this change was done to them rather than with them. The misalignment in interests of parties in this conflict and the leadership deficiency to craft a unifying overarching vision, winning hearts and minds, got in the way of constructive dialogue.
One of the solutions discussed is to buy out farms to adhere to the European Nitrogen standards. As a farmer, we can imagine that this completely removes your sense of agency about your life, your farm and possibly your heritage. When it touches on these emotions, it becomes personal.
Evidently, this didn’t only resonate with the farmer community, but with the larger Dutch electorate, as similar dynamics were at play in other dossiers such as the natural gas production in Groningen or the childcare benefits scandal. This protest vote in large part explains the landslide victory of the Boeren Burger Beweging.
What emotion does it play into? Losing control: the government as the big bad wolf who can decide for you and apparently take what is rightfully yours (in your opinion). And therefore losing your sense of agency.
So how could this be done differently? That is what Frank and Nadja discuss in their new podcast, together with Danny Vader and Hélène van Engelen. The first episode is on the deadlock between farmers and politicians in the nitrogen discussions: “How fear of change holds us back in negotiations, finding common ground”.
Listen to the podcast episode and let us know what you think!
This blog is based on the Heartwork newsletter, 19th of March 2023. Would you like to read more inspiring content?