Free Will Means Nothing without Control

Lucas A. Davidson
3 min readFeb 27, 2022

Part I

He was caked in bits of vomit, giggling, and trying to tie his shoes.
All that between wet burps that reeked like sour whiskey, cigarettes, and ramen.

I’ll spare the name, but they on the surface you’re thinking “LOL been there!” or “YOLO!” and “Sounds like someone has a drinking problem…”

…And you’re right.

He did.
He did have a problem.

He’s dead now.

They were found full Jimi Hendrix’ed at 30.

Laying in bed, blue faced, asleep, again caked in puke and with flies on their open mouth.

I, too, once went down this road with severe alcoholism (and am gratefully 3+ years sober). But, it’s a story for another day.

As I discuss in my coming book, “YouDaimonia: the Ancient Philosophy of Human Flourishing,” free will is a razor sharp double edge.

Free will is an unwieldy, wickedly sharp bastard sword.

On one side is the ability to move mountains, achieve any goal, crush any record.
But, on the other — misery, wild mood swings, and feeling like life is a speeding car on ice.

One side is Rick Sanchez.
The other is David Goggins.

So, what’s the difference?

Discipline.
Control.
Self-awareness.
Self-accountability.

Anyone who’s ever had an addiction — porn, alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, hell even video games — has this attitude…

“I can quit whenever I want!”

Right up until one day it wallops them directly in the face.

They realize they not only have an addiction but they also realize they can’t just drop it and quit.

There’s a sudden, powerful, overwhelming sensation like vertigo…

…I have no control over this or myself.

In Stoicism, one may study and meditate for many years to understand the concept of control. They always come to realize we only control ourselves.

Not the weather.
Not the speed of the stoplight.
Not the way someone acts or speaks.

We only can control ourselves - our behaviors and our perception.

The realization had by an addict is both a blessing and a curse:
A blessing in that they’ve taken the first step to correct themselves — to learn control
…a curse because now every slip up brings them back to day 1.

A curse because every error in recovery means they lapsed in control…And to lack control of oneself is the ultimate sin-of-the-self.

In “YouDaimonia,” I talk about the importance of self-awareness.
With many addictive behaviors, you end up in an “auto-pilot.” Habit kicks in and before you know it, your food addiction flares up. You watched 5 episodes of The Office while eating a whole pizza and a tub of ice cream.

Self-awareness is one of the main tenets of the core principles of Physical Wellness and Spirituality in Eudaimonia.

You can cultivate awareness…
…but it will be pitch-black progress.

It will take years. The rest of your life, in fact.

When you get our awareness leveled-up to the point that we realize, “Whoa — I was opening a private tab to pull up porno on complete auto-pilot,” that’s the moment you begin to win.

You can then step away, starting the process of breaking the behavior and habit.

— — — — —

This is Part 1 of a multi-part series from my coming book “YouDaimonia: the Ancient Philosophy of Human Flourishing.” Like and follow me for the continuation!

--

--

Lucas A. Davidson

Daily philosophical meditations on Eudaimonia. These are distillations from the forthcoming book on the topic. Comments or jobs: lucas@multistatewide.com