The Most Powerful Force Known

by William Wright

Hint: You were born with it. The most powerful force known – a force that no one but you has the power to direct – is the force of your own will.

What's the big deal about will?

Take a look around you. Everything you own has something to do with will, yours, or that of someone else. Take your monitor for instance. You can't make a decision to buy it until someone makes a decision to build it. How can it be built if no one has put forth the effort to design it? Why bother designing it if there is no software worth looking at? Use Windows? Think the will of Bill Gates. Use Mac? Think the will of Steve Jobs. Even the act of sitting in front of a computer monitor requires an act of will to get there, or at least the will to shift your eyes in that general direction. You cannot escape the effects of Will.

What is will?

Simply put: will is the ability to deliberately choose. This may not seem like much at first blush: black socks or brown socks, go out or stay in, turn left or right, say yes or no, etc… But where does this ability to choose end?

Every moment of every day, we all choose. Each choice builds on the last. Some choices are small, some are big. But each one counts, and in the end our lives are the sum of our choices. What if Bill Gates chose to finish school then got an office job? What if Elvis chose to stay a truck driver? Two men, two decisions, countless lives altered. Each of us impacts the world with our will and each of us is impacted by the will of others. Bill and Elvis are glaring examples, but more often the effect is far more subtle. A single act of kindness may not directly put a computer in every home or spark a revolution in music, but it will cause a ripple with an effect that extends far beyond the original act.

More precisely put: will is the means with which we direct energy by way of thought. NO ONE can direct your thoughts but you. Many of us have set our wills on autopilot by way of habit for so long, that we have forgotten to put this awesome force to deliberate use.

Consider water spouting from a hose. If we aim that hose, we can direct the water where we want it to go for the purposes we choose. If we let the hose go, it will flop wildly and the water will splash around with messy and random results. It's your hose, metaphorically speaking, and water will flow through it until your final breath. Whether you leave it to flop in a random, messy manner, or direct it purposefully to help grow the life you want, the responsibily for where and how that water flows is ultimately yours.

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