Carlos Garcia

Get calm under pressure. Build your inner fortress | attorney, Army JAG officer, judo man, ultra runner

[Carlos Garcia @TrueProgressLab]

@NotionStatus

[Carlos Garcia @TrueProgressLab]

There’s a lot of stuff that goes under that.

[Carlos Garcia @TrueProgressLab]

avoidance and procrastination are byproducts of a sneaky thing called fear of judgment mixed with stress.

The more you feel those emotions, the more you avoid and procrastinate.

The solution requires building the skill of calm and clear thinking.

[Carlos Garcia @TrueProgressLab]

you don’t always have to open your mouth and say something.

silence and gestures and modeling calm can be just as effective.

people with power often speak less and by doing that say more through their gestures and looks.

try it. you will embody calm.

[Carlos Garcia @TrueProgressLab]

you can bundle up all the nice skills you think you need to sharpen but really there's a habit underneath it all that’s responsible for making all those nice skills possible.

What other skills are just outputs of this habit? Let me know in the comments.

[Carlos Garcia @TrueProgressLab]

Subscribe -> https://t.co/PrSOb5OCj0

[Carlos Garcia @TrueProgressLab]

professional development gurus that tell you you just need more skills to regulate your emotions are lying to you.

You can have 52 tools in your toolbox and your mind will still betray you when you need it the most.

Train for pressure, the skills come second.

[Carlos Garcia @TrueProgressLab]

This came from Sunday's Toolkit, Issue No. 146. New issues every Sunday — subscribe before the next one drops →

https://t.co/PrSOb5OCj0

[Carlos Garcia @TrueProgressLab]

Every confidence system I've seen puts you at the center.

Build self-belief. Manage your inner critic. Prove yourself to yourself.

The FOPO loop stays active because you're still the point of the work.

[Carlos Garcia @TrueProgressLab]

FOPO is fear of other people's opinions—the fear of being seen, judged, found out. Every method that keeps you as the subject keeps you monitoring the room.

What breaks the loop is contribution.

When the work is genuinely bigger than you, you stop tracking who's watching.

[Carlos Garcia @TrueProgressLab]

The more friction you schedule in your life, the more capacity you build.

The more capacity, the more you can deal with the uncertain events of work and life.

[Carlos Garcia @TrueProgressLab]

instead of looking for ways to calm myself down with the different psych tools out there, I found a better way.

A way that no longer makes me depend on tools.

It involves building the habit of increasing friction.

Here’s how it goes:

[Carlos Garcia @TrueProgressLab]

New issues every Sunday → https://t.co/PrSOb5OCj0

[Carlos Garcia @TrueProgressLab]

This resilience principle from James Stockdale changed how I approach any sort of goal:

There’s a culture of building yourself through hard workouts, cold showers, Stoic white-knuckling, etc.

These practices have problems though if you don’t fix something deeper than that.

[Carlos Garcia @TrueProgressLab]

what they did under pressure.

Separate your actions under pressure from your identity.

That’s how you stay sane and keep trying.

—

Issue No. 146 of the True Progress Sunday Toolkit is out now.

Two more pressure protocols and a crucible challenge inside.

[Carlos Garcia @TrueProgressLab]

How to control your body language:

1. Stop relying on body language tactics
2. Stop reading charisma books
3. Stop focusing on external skills
4. Work on building your discomfort level outside the workplace

[Carlos Garcia @TrueProgressLab]

Your people aren’t just listening to your words. They're reading your body language.

Your shallow breath in the meeting. Stiff body when someone pushes back. How you cut people off when they’re talking. They pick up every signal.

[Carlos Garcia @TrueProgressLab]

People bring problems and ideas.

Activated: everything feels urgent. You think you're being productive. Your team is running like wild chickens trying to match your pace.

Shut-down: you go distant. You think you're being careful. They think you've checked out.