High Agency Human

Our cage bars are not constructed of iron or steel, but of beliefs, cognitive biases, and psychological conditioning. Once recognized, our malleable internal barriers can be removed.

The imagery of cages is common in metaphors for the psychological restraints we face, whether self-imposed or imposed by others or systems. You can find terms like “mental cage” and “internal cage” scattered throughout different articles, papers, and online posts. This vivid imagery illustrates psychological concepts that might otherwise be indigestible. What do these cages look like in our daily lives? They often take forms so familiar that we rarely question them. Let’s explore a few of the more common ones.

1.

The Cage of Comparison: Measuring yourself against someone else’s life metrics. For example, this could look like comparing fitness gains someone else posted on social media to your own progress or lack thereof and allowing that comparison to weigh you down (if it pushes you forward, it is not a cage). Another example is watching friends build businesses faster or take trips that you can only dream about. This cage is the scroll through social media while thinking What am I doing wrong? The hidden cost is that, instead of staying focused on your own progress and wins, you can waste time, energy, and motivation chasing someone else’s blueprint.

2.

The Cage of Compliance: Defaulting to others’ expectations, not what’s aligned. You have achieved everything expected of you, what you were told to achieve: the higher educational degree, respectable career path, and socially accepted life. Everything that should equal fulfillment yet doesn’t. The high agency reframe is to consider what you actually want life to look like—and to remember that you don’t need permission to pivot.

3.

The Cage of Control: Believing if you don’t do it all, it won’t get done. You’re the one whose absence would mean work falls apart, the one who does it all and more. The person people call when they need help or want to know how to get things done. Delegation feels risky and rest, well, that’s impossible. On the surface, this may look like high agency, but it has the hidden cost of creating resentment and negative health effects. The high agency move is to intentionally let go so you can move forward, stronger.

The list of cages could go on. If life feels scripted, or if you’ve ever felt like you can’t speak up, start over, or slow down—even when no one’s stopping you—you may be trapped in a cage. And it can be dismantled. The method is simple: Identify it, challenge it, and exit it.