So this is interesting to me:

Society scorns us when we have ‘weak willpower’. When we don’t have strong enough willpower to resist temptations, eating junk food, etc.

We are taught, “If you train yourself to have enough willpower, you can do, prevent, and achieve anything!”

Does society believe in free will?

Then comes the next idea:

Does modern society (American) believe in ‘free will’?

It seems that American society does. We believe that with enough hard work, determination and effort, we can achieve or become anyone.

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Why does American society believe in free will?

Now this is where things get interesting and juicy for me:

WHY does American society believe in free will?

Nietzsche’s theory is that ‘free will’ was invented or propagated by the church in order to punish people who didn’t listen to the Christian laws. For example, if don’t have free will, technically it isn’t just to punish you.

For example if you are a “normal” person with the faculty of free will, you have the power to sin (or not to sin). You have the willpower to determine your sinning behaviors. Thus if you ever sin, it is out of your free will– thus you can be punished for your sins.

But let us say you don’t have free will. You are an “insane” person, who has no control over your thoughts, actions, etc. Then if you “sin”, of course you shouldn’t be punished for your behaviors. Why not? Because you have no faculty of controlling yourself! I think most people and societies only punish individuals if they “willing fully” committed a crime or unlawful act. If they “couldn’t control themselves”, then either they get sent to a “rehab” center, or perhaps in some mental institution.

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Why do so many Koreans and Asian-Americans succeed in American society?

So it seems evident that in modern American society, we believe in free will. I can also say that in most Asian-American-Confucian societies and cultures, we also believe in free will. Korean-Confucian culture says:

If you work hard enough, are determined enough, you can achieve high test scores, get a good job, make a bunch of money, and become “successful” (sounds very American, although it puts more focus on education for success).

Thus in this way, Koreans don’t really believe in “talent” or “natural gifts”. Koreans only celebrate and reward hard work. What is the consequence of this line of thinking?

If you got poor test scores, it is because you were lazy and didn’t “work hard enough”.

Koreans believe in pure willpower; that success doesn’t depend on luck, and you have 100% control over your fate (once again, if you work hard enough).

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Should willpower be moralized?

My belief:

Willpower shouldn’t be related to morals or ethics.

Why not? When you think about willpower in terms of morals (right vs wrong, sinful vs virtuous, etc) it sullies and confuses notions of willpower.

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How can I exercise willpower?

Let me give you a very practical example:

Let us say you’re doing chinups, pushups, dips, or any other bodyweight type of exercise. Generally when most of us are doing these kinds of exercises, there is a certain point in which we get tired, and desire to stop doing the receptions. But, we do have the willpower to push ourselves forward, to crank out more repetitions, and we have the willpower to put in MORE EFFORT, in order to recruit more muscle fibers to do the activity.

For example, let us say I am doing chinups. I do a bunch of chinups and get tired and want to stop. But if in my head I have the willpower and the great desire to do more, I can hype myself up (grunting and focusing my mind), and I can push my body to crank out a few more repetitions.

What prevents us from achieving a greater goal or level? Perhaps fear (fear of injury). Perhaps lack of self-confidence (I cannot do it, or I am unworthy/incapable of doing great things). Perhaps we don’t think it is physically possible (people once thought it was impossible to do a 500kg deadlift until Eddie Hall did it, or thought that a 4 minute mile was impossible until someone did it).

So to break this down:

1. Willpower and morality should be SEPARATED. Lack of willpower doesn’t mean you are a “morally bad/weak/unworthy” person. Having strong willpower doesn’t necessarily mean you are more virtuous either.
2. We have willpower, but the question is; do we desire to exercise it, to what extent, and what are the physical possibilities of the human body or ability? We must go back to first principles, think more in terms of physics (than morals/ethics/history) in order to discover what is possible (not plausible).
3. Direct your willpower toward what you care about; to not waste your willpower, and to perhaps discover new ways how we can augment our willpower.

Future essays will include:

1. How (and if we can) augment our willpower.
2. How willpower is physiological (related more to the body, less the mind).
3. Willpower related to art.

ERIC