“You can’t take credit for your talents, but it matters that you use them. You can’t truly be blamed for your flaws, but it matters that you correct upon them.
Sam Harris
What does make sense is a commitment to wellbeing, to improving your life, and the lives of everyone around you.”
I was listening to Sam Harris talk about “Free Will” on his Making Sense podcast. I found it quite thought-provoking to pause and reflect on the concept of free will.
Free will is “the ability to decide what to do independently of any outside influence” (Cambridge dictionary).
Free will is when we make our own choices and act on our own accord. No one is telling us what to do. We decide what to do based on our own free will.
Sam makes a compelling argument that free will does not exist. Instead, we are just living out our experience and responding to stimuli in the world, without any real control on our own accord. Thoughts only appear in our brain, and we run with them.
Are we the author of our thoughts and actions?
“The truth is that we feel or presume authorship over our thoughts and actions that is illusory. How can we be free, as conscious agents, if everything that we consciously intended is caused by events in our brain that we did not intend and of which we are entirely unaware? We can’t.”
Sam Harris
Do we have any control over the choices that appear in our mind?
“But we cannot choose what we choose and if it ever appears that we do, for instance, after going back and forth between two options. We do not choose to choose what we choose. There is a regress here that always ends in darkness. We always take a first step, or a last one, for reasons that are bound to remain subjectively mysterious. To say that I could have done otherwise is too merely have the thought “I could have done otherwise” after doing whatever I in fact did.”
Sam Harris
Some interesting food for thought.
I won’t go into the never-ending philosophical debate over whether Free Will does or does not exist. Instead, I will focus on one of the more practical elements from Sam’s discussion, which could have real, positive impacts on our lives.
Viewing ourselves as a system
“It is possible to change. In fact, viewing oneself as a system that is perpetually open to influence makes change seem even more possible. You are by no means condemned to be the person you were yesterday. In fact, you can’t be that person. The self, in the sense of this term that actually makes sense, isn’t a stable entity. It is a process. This is what makes growth possible.”
Sam Harris
Systems have inputs and outputs. If we change what goes in, it impacts what comes out. If our brains are just responding to present stimuli and drawing on our past experiences and learnings, then we can influence our thoughts and actions by what we put in.
This means that our choices do matter, and we can take steps to make better ones.
What inputs are going into your mind, and how are they influencing your decisions?
Are you reading great books? What podcasts do you listen to? Who are you surrounding yourself with?
This information could have a direct impact on your potential success in any focus area of your life.
Are your inputs aligned with your desired future self? Is it changing you for the better? Is it improving your choices in life?
Our system is part of a bigger system(s)
“We are part of a system, many systems in fact. And therefore, what we do actually matters. The fact that there is no frontier between ourselves and the world, or between our own minds and the minds of others, makes what we think and do more important, rather than less.”
Sam Harris
What we choose to do not only has consequences for us but also for those that we touch. If we make a positive change, there is a ripple effect. Those positive changes flow over to our peers, which positively influences others lives. All one big system.
Reflection
- My life is a system that is a part of a greater system.
- What is one input I can change to increase my wellbeing or improve my life?
- My choices can have a positive impact on others.
