The Will-Series

The Many Faces of Will

Tree of Sanity | From Personal Power to Emergent Flow.

Photo by ray rui on Unsplash

We often think of will as something simple: the inner force that gets us out of bed, keeps us focused, and pushes us through challenges and resistance. In this sense, will is discipline, determination, and self-control.

However, life in its complexity reveals a broader perspective. Will is many-sided, extending from strain to surrender, from solitary effort to shared emergence.

In a seven-article series, I explore the various aspects of will. What follows is a map of these explorations, a journey through the many faces of will that together create a deeper understanding of the complexity of human volition.

Will and Free Will

The first question is whether we actually have free will. Do we truly make choices, or are our actions shaped by unseen forces like neural patterns, cultural scripts, or collective fields?

The answer is paradoxical: both. We are not isolated agents cut off from the world, but neither are we puppets without agency.

We are participants in a larger movement.

Every choice is entangled with context, yet within that entanglement lies the freedom to notice, to…