---
title: "Agile is something you are, not something you do"
source: 18F Guides
source_url: https://github.com/18F/guides
licence: CC0-1.0
domain: engineering
subdomain: 18f-guides
date_added: 2026-04-25
---

If you take nothing else from all these words, take this. Agile is not a checklist, or a methodology, or a series of rituals. Agile is a way of thinking and a way of attacking problems. Embrace mistakes, learn, and keep trying. Mess up and learn again and again and again. Cut your losses. Fail forward fast. It’s okay. You won’t get fired. You’re learning.

_That_ is Agile.
