Consider for a moment the whims, desires, daily activities, and big decisions which cultivate the life you lead. Are they choices you have deliberately made or the results of previous actions which were destined to occur? What was the last big choice point in your life? Did you choose what thoughts you had, or did they arise unbidden? Did you experience the feeling of being guided? A sense of purpose or fate? A calling of the soul? Could you see that it was possible for you to have made different choices? Although our sense of “agency” (belief in the capacity to act) is at the core of behaviour change, we rarely consider the foundational beliefs which shape what we do. More importantly, how we understand who we are (our concept of self) influences our belief in free will.

We use and hear phrases every day, which are suggestive of beliefs tied to free will, such as:

• “Whatever happens is supposed to happen”
• “It was meant to be”
• “It was doomed to fail”
• “I need to find my purpose”
• “I carve my own path”
• “It speaks to my soul”
• “I’ve lost my way”

We know what people mean when they say these phrases…….or do we?The body content of your post goes here. To edit this text, click on it and delete this default text and start typing your own or paste your own from a different source.

What is free will?

Free will means always having a choice. Meaning, it was possible to do or choose otherwise if the same preceding sequence of steps and actions occurred again at the same time. This includes “you” being the exact same “you”, with all the same knowledge and experiences who made the choice. Determinism means the opposite; things are pre-ordained. It is not possible to choose otherwise. Here it gets tricky, a phrase like “whatever happens is supposed to happen” is often used to suggest destiny or fate, as though life or a guiding force has a plan. Similarly, “whatever happens is supposed to happen” can also mean a series of prior patterns sets off the next set of patterns: there is no plan, it is simply not possible for anything else to occur. 

"If you have a choice, you can change things.

If what is meant to happen will happen, you have no choice".

There is another facet of free will tied to whether we have belief in a non-physical soul (dualism and non-reductionism). This means believing mental states are more than physical occurrences in the brain. Culture, religion, science, and spirituality are intertwined with beliefs in free will. What we say and do isn’t always what we inherently believe when we drill down into it: we are all full of contradictions. Understanding the link between free will (subjective beliefs in agency) with our concept of self (our subjective understanding of the self) paired with coaching can help unlock new insights for growth, development, and change.

Beliefs about free will shape how we interpret our capacity to change

Paying attention to our automatic belief systems can help us identify tensions and contradictions. This also means we can be assassins for testing our assumptions: we can hunt them down with highly tuned skills. If we accept our assumptions as true, then this dictates how we respond. However, if we accept our assumptions as false, then we can re-frame the situation and remove the limiting belief. Imagine you are a leader making a mid-life career decision which is causing you a lot of turmoil and confusion. If you believe in any form of determinism, everything that is going to happen will happen: no matter what you do (including how you make the decision). How should overthinking or ruminating be approached in this context? Acceptance, understanding and reflection may be more useful and help you approach decisions with more ease and patience. Conversely, the same decision with a belief in free will has a different level of responsibility. Plus, the decision-making process you use is part of the decision itself that will affect the outcome! 

"Paying attention to our automatic belief systems

can help us identify tensions and contradictions.

This also means we can be assassins for testing our assumptions:

we can hunt them down with highly tuned skills".

The more we know ourselves, the more we are aware of what shapes our thinking, feeling, emotion and experiences: our beliefs. Being aware is the first step. Simply notice when you make “choices” how much influence you have over the thoughts which arise within you. How much attention should you pay to them? Frame overthinking with assassin thinking. Find out what beliefs are driving your choices and whether you chose or inherited those beliefs from family, faith, culture or somewhere else in your life. Western influences espouse the personal power, influence, and ownership of creating the life you want, which based on your belief system may feel like a pressure cooker of contradiction. Eastern influences which are increasingly popular in the west espouse and mindfulness-based philosophies, the power of acceptance, letting go and presence. In summary, if you have free will, then you can choose your beliefs. If you don’t believe in free will, how do you want to approach and experience life?

How you understand the Concept of Self can influence your belief in free will

In a previous article (link below) I described how we understand the self based on three factors:

1. Stability of Self; the past “you”, present “you”, and future “you” are the same, compared to the belief that the self is an illusion or something we construct (which is not the same over time)
2. Thoughts of Self; you are the same as your thoughts (they are part of your core self), compared to the belief that the self is an illusion and thoughts are not a representation of “you”
3. Unity of Self; there is one integrated, united, and true “you” compared to the belief that you have multiple and distinct selves which co-exist

How we understand the self (our concept of self) has a relationship with beliefs in free will. Notably, individuals who believe the self is illusory or a narrative construct we create, are less likely to believe they have personal agency in their life. So, people who believe the self is the same over time, are more likely to believe in free will. Also, people who believe in a single united “one” self are more likely to believe in souls, suggesting a higher belief in the mind body relationship. This matters because when we talk about behaviour change, the individual reality of how we understand who we are can give us clues about what other beliefs may be linked. Of note is our attitude to free will and determinism or the assumption of self or no-self. What one person may see as liberating others perceive as inhibiting happiness or meaning in life. The key is knowing our beliefs and how they shape our daily experience.

Self-awareness of beliefs is essential for coaches and can be utilised in coaching

There are two selves in the coaching relationship who each have beliefs about the self and agency which can be different. Beliefs, both conscious and unconscious can arouse strong emotions and be heavily defended. So, how can coaches work with their self as an instrument without influencing the coaching session? For example, contrast how differently coaches who believe in free will (always having a choice) versus determinism (things are preordained) might work with the same client on the same goal. It seems implausible that a fundamental belief like this wouldn’t shape understanding of behaviour. If you have a choice, you can change things. If what is meant to happen will happen, you have no choice. They are two different concepts of agency: understanding how they manifest through language can help coaches operate in their client’s reality rather than their own.

If you are a coach, what is your psychological philosophy to explain behaviour change? They are not all the same and each have a different evidence base. Domains to explain behaviour can come from a wide range such as neuroscientific, behavioural, or cognitive behavioural perspectives, others from a more humanistic, somatic, systems or solutions-based perspective. Are emotions data, do they tell us something important or are they mental states triggered by neurophysiological responses? Is our thinking something to change, accept or observe? How did you choose your foundational philosophy? Was it a deliberate and conscious decision or were you drawn to one over the other? How might your concept of self or beliefs in free will have influenced this? 

"This is important because apparent erroneous assumptions

and obvious cognitive errors to one person,

may be a strong belief system to another".

Beyond the self as the essential tool in coaches, the interventions and tools the coach uses are also anchored in such beliefs and philosophies. Some approaches will be jarring to the client’s or the coach’s beliefs. Assumptions of free will may be more appropriate to goal visualisation (shaping purpose in life) and learning from past decisions. The W at the end of GROW stands for “Will” after all! Whereas psychodynamic coaching to manage life-script patterns or mindfulness to accept the inevitable may be a better fit for clients who believe in determinism. Similarly, ontological interventions which use the body as an integrated system or coaching the soul matches beliefs that the mind cannot be reduced to basic biology. Other coaching approaches which use a cognitive behavioural, biological, or neuroscientific approach may be more suitable for clients who believe the self is illusory or  that mental states are pure mental phenomena. This is important because apparent erroneous assumptions and obvious cognitive errors to one person, may be a strong belief system to another. How does a coach effectively use the self in a belief system which contradicts the foundations of their change practice? Can they adapt? Should they adapt?

Free will and the concept of self seem like big topics but are littered in everyday coaching conversations. For example, purpose, goals, authenticity, happiness, overthinking, triggers and emotional responses, meaning and life paths, and any decision about work and family. Ultimately, clients come to coaching with a belief in free will (or determinism), or perhaps contradictions and tensions which may be linked to their sense of agency and understanding of the self. This is paired with influences and beliefs from the various systems in their life, either conscious or unconscious. Coaches can recognise assumptions and beliefs at the foundations of behaviour change through the language of their clients. But first, they must understand their own.

Link to article about the Concept-of-Self

Learn more about the author, Heather Frost.