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Mojo Monday - Freedom to Choose: Action or Inaction · Hardiness with Dr Paul Taylor

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Hi everyone, Carly Taylor here for this week's Mojo Monday.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: I'm reading a book At the Moment by Jean Paul Sartre.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: He's a French philosopher and the book is on existentialism.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: It's really really interesting. There's a quote in it, and
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: the quote is man is condemned to be free. Now,
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: at first glance, that might sound really strange because freedom
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: is something that we kind of think of to celebrate,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: not to be condemned by. So why would it be
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: why would it feel like a condemnation. But Satre wasn't
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: talking about freedom in the simple sense of doing whatever
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: we like. He meant something deeper and something more, I guess, unsettling,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: and something that, once we understand it can really change
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: how we live our lives. So Stu and I hope
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: I'm pronouncing that right. Satra Sutra's point was that we
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: are always making choices, whether we realize it or not.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: There is no external force, no fate, no divine plan
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: that dictates who we become. So we define ourselves through
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: our actions, moment by moment by moment, and that's where
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: the condemnation comes in, because if we are free, then
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: that means We're responsible for what we do, so there's
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: no escaping it. Even when we avoid making a decision,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: we are still choosing. And even when we let fear
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: or doubt or habit dictate our actions, we're still shaping
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: the kind of person we are becoming through our choices.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: So Satra described a concept called bad faith when we
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: pretend that we don't have any freedom. So think about
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: the moments, and I think we've all had these moments
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: in our lives, when we've said to ourselves or we've
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: said to somebody else, I can't do that. It's just
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: the way I am, or I have no choice, it's
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: out of my hands, or that's just not me. And
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: Satre would argue that these statements are excuses to escape responsibility.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: No one is born brave or kind or disciplined. We
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: become those things through our repeated choices. And when we
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: tell our selves we have no choice, we are lying
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: to ourselves. We are living in what he calls bad faith.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: And he does distinguish between things that we can control,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: which is our choices and our actions, and the things
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: that we must accept, which is our external circumstances, other
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: people's reactions or chance events, and he calls this despair,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: meaning that we must act without illusions. We can only
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: control our own will and what directly pends on us. So,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: for example, he says, we must limit ourselves to reckoning
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: only with those things that depend on our will or
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: on the set of probabilities that enable action. So this
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: means that we can't expect the world to conform to
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: our wishes. We act without guarantees, and that makes sense
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: because there's no guarantee of outcome, so we focus on
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: the process, We focus on what we can control without
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: expecting guarantees of an outcome. You can contrast this freedom
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: with despair. So we are free to make our choices,
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: but not free from the consequences, the uncertainty, or the
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: actions of others. And Sata rejected the idea of a
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: fixed self. So he argued that we are not defined
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: by our past, or our emotions, or what society expects
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: from us. We are what we repairdly do. So a
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: person is not lazy, they become lazy through their actions.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: Or a person who's not brave they become brave by
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: acting courageously even when they feel afraid. And this is
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: why Satu's philosophy is both challenging and it's liberating because
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: it removes the comfort of excuses, but it gives us
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: complete ownership over our lives. So we take responsibility over
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: our actions. So what do we do with this responsibility.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: We can start by noticing the moments when we tell
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: ourselves that we have no choice. We can remind ourselves
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: that every action or inaction is a decision that is
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: going to shape our future self. So this week, when
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: you find yourself maybe hesitating when you're making a choice,
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: ask yourself, am I choosing this based on fear or
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: based on the person that I want to become? And
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: am I living as though I have no freedom when
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: in reality you do? Because in the end, as Sata
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: reminds us, we are condemned to be free, whether we
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: like it or not, So we may as well make
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: the choices that move us towards the life that we
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: truly want, and be responsible for those choices. So have
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: a great week everyone, and I will catch you next week.