💡 Feeling Powerless --> Feeling Powerful

The weekly newsletter that helps people be more successful at work, by enjoying it more.

Hi Reader! 👋

I hope you've had an amazing week. As I previewed last week, I just spent a few days at the Second Brain Summit, a conference about digital creativity for people who love using technology to be more productive. (My words — not exactly what they put on the brochure)

It was packed with inspiring presentations and people. And a recurring theme was that we need to stop driving ourselves crazy trying to be extra-insanely-mega-productive, and use our tools and systems to make things more enjoyable. This week's newsletter features just a few of the many a-ha moments I took from the event.

Feeling powerless at work = soulcrushing
Taking agency = soulcrusher-crushing

No matter who we are, we probably don't have as much control over our work life as we'd like.

Many employees feel like they're being steered in all kinds of crazy directions by the whims of their bosses. And believe it or not, many bosses feel like they're being steered in all kinds of crazy directions by the whims of their employees.

Even at the highest levels, it's easy to feel powerless.

...which drains our energy.
(Makes sense — since we literally feel like we have less power.)

One of the inspiring sessions from the event I mentioned above was hosted by Mark Alexander, of Art of Accomplishment. (I wasn't familiar with this group before the event, but several friends and people I met there have amazing things to say about what they offer.)

The session was called, "How Enjoyment Makes You Far More Productive" — so you can see why I was intrigued.

And my biggest takeaway from the session turns out to be a powerful weapon against feeling powerless.

That takeaway is this:
We have more agency than we know.

"Agency" is our sense of control — and our capacity to influence our own thoughts and behavior.

It's easy to feel powerless when someone else has power over what work we have to do. But we have full power over our own thoughts and behavior. Always.

Once we fully realize this, "feeling powerless" quickly flips to feeling powerful.

More on this, in this week's creative thinking workout...

This week's creative thinking workout:

Enjoying difficult situations.

A simple, but powerful exercise we did during the session I just talked about went like this:

In pairs, we took turns saying, "I enjoy difficult situations more when I _______."

We went back and forth with our partners, for about five minutes. Each time, we filled the blank with something new. The approach is both a creative exercise and an exercise in taking agency.

If you have a partner to do this with, great. If not, do it by yourself.

Set a timer for five minutes.
Write down as many options as you can that fill in that blank:
"I enjoy difficult situations more when I _______."

But it's not a race or contest. Just let your brain (or heart, or gut) fill in the blank for you, without forcing it. You'll be surprised at the endless number of things can end that thought.

And each one gives us a new tool, approach, or mindset to making our work more enjoyable.

Smiles,
-Tim-

Let's Lightbulb - Founder / CEO / Crusher of Soulcrushers

Let's Lightbulb is a strategic facilitation consultancy, specializing in outcome-based workshops, off-sites, sprints and trainings. We specialize in working with leadership teams, inspiring creative thinking, and keeping things soulcrusher-free.

If you know of anyone looking for a facilitator for any of the above, we'd appreciate you sharing our info.

Every week in this newsletter, I share how to reduce the stuff that makes our work not-fun, and increase the stuff that makes work fun.

It's 98.3% Pollyanna-thinking-free.

Thanks for reading, and please share with friends and colleagues that might find it valuable — because we need more fun people in the world.

If you care enough to read this tiny print at the very end of the email, you probably care enough to tell a friend about this newsletter. Thanks!

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💡 Feeling Powerless --> Feeling Powerful

This week's creative thinking workout:

💡 Let's Lightbulb — March 31, 2026

💡 Let's Lightbulb — March 22, 2026

💡 Let's Lightbulb — March 13, 2026