Carlos Garcia

Attorneys & execs: build composure and unleash your inner badass.

[Carlos Garcia @TrueProgressLab]

@NotionHQ My side bar = hidden.

Don’t need a sidebar. Prefer lean dashboard page that gets stuff done.

[Carlos Garcia @TrueProgressLab]

"My son, I am very disappointed in you, ... I never hear anything wrong said about you. You have proven yourself incapable of generating envy."

[Carlos Garcia @TrueProgressLab]

"I grew to find people greedy for credentials nauseating, repulsive, and untrustworthy."

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

[Carlos Garcia @TrueProgressLab]

My son tried to butter his toast last week and couldn't do it.

Every instinct I had was to step in.

When we rescue kids from discomfort too soon, we teach them to avoid hard things, and that pattern follows them everywhere.

Give them the 60 seconds.

[Carlos Garcia @TrueProgressLab]

New issues every Sunday. Subscribe so the next one lands in your inbox: https://t.co/PrSOb5OCj0

[Carlos Garcia @TrueProgressLab]

The moment fear picks the ending, your brain starts deleting evidence.

The prep you did? Won't matter. The ten times you performed under pressure? Gone. All that's left is the one story where you fell apart.

Psychologists call it confirmation bias. I call it the invisible edit.

[Carlos Garcia @TrueProgressLab]

Sunday's Toolkit has the fix: before the next hard moment, write three hard things you've already handled. Read them when the dread spikes.

Hand your brain the evidence it keeps cutting.

[Carlos Garcia @TrueProgressLab]

If speaking up in meetings feels like too much, shrink the rep.

One assertion per meeting: pick one honest opinion or question before you walk in, and say it once.

Visibility is built in small, repeatable moments, not one big brave performance.

[Carlos Garcia @TrueProgressLab]

I break down how to train through the fear of judgment in my webinar. Link in bio.

[Carlos Garcia @TrueProgressLab]

Doing great work and waiting to be noticed can be a hiding spot.

When fear of failure drives your choices, you trade the bigger opportunity for the safer, smaller one.

Before your next move, ask whether you want it or whether it just keeps you safe.

[Carlos Garcia @TrueProgressLab]

Subscribe so it hits your inbox before you talk yourself out of the next hard thing: https://t.co/PrSOb5OCj0

[Carlos Garcia @TrueProgressLab]

The night before I defended an Army Major at his separation hearing, I couldn't sit still.

Brand-new lieutenant. His career in my hands. A retired general across the room. A prosecutor who'd done this a hundred times. Me — zero.

[Carlos Garcia @TrueProgressLab]

You pay the full cost of a threat that almost never arrives.

The dread isn't reading the room. It's playing an old recording.

This week's Toolkit gives you the Dread Ledger: rate your fear before the hard moment, then after.

New issues come out every Sunday.

[Carlos Garcia @TrueProgressLab]

Sunday's Toolkit is about that gap. Why the dread runs so hot the night before, and what it's quietly costing you.

New issues drop every Sunday.

Subscribe before Sunday so this one lands in your inbox ⬇️: https://t.co/PrSOb5OCj0

[Carlos Garcia @TrueProgressLab]

The night before a hard moment, the steady ones crack.

Not in the room. Before it.

You lie there running every way it could go wrong. Chest tight. Mind loud. Overthinking a threat that hasn't happened yet.

I've seen this in a lot of sharp attorneys.

[Carlos Garcia @TrueProgressLab]

The build-up feels much worse than the actual event, almost every time. You pay the full cost of fear for something that rarely shows up.

Tonight, catch the story your mind writes before a hard moment. Just notice it.

[Carlos Garcia @TrueProgressLab]

Most people are still just adding to their prep list.

[Carlos Garcia @TrueProgressLab]

Over-preparation is not the same as training. It's overthinking with structure.

A peer-reviewed study confirmed that Stress Inoculation Training reduces performance anxiety and improves performance under pressure in executives.

The Army built it into every resilience program.

[Carlos Garcia @TrueProgressLab]

One rep at a time.

[Carlos Garcia @TrueProgressLab]

The imposter feeling doesn't go away because you know it's common. It goes away because you train against it.

Hesitation and avoidance aren't personality traits. They're patterns.

And patterns break from structured exposure, not from hearing "you're not alone."