Will and the capacity for action

It is very often believed that will is the essential drive behind our actions. But this is a truth which calls for modification. Will is powered by motivation and can only work as a strong driving force if our inner images, our expectations and what we believe in, is pushing in the same direction. If there is an inner conflict between will and expectation the latter will usually win. We always harbor some kind of expection prior to an anticipated situation and create an inner image, bad or good, of what the result of the expected circumstances and our own actions will be. The stronger this image is, the more it will affect our actions in the real situation. Thus it is easy to understand that negative expectations, which very often are perceived as threat by ancient survival programs in the middle brain, will affect the functions of both mind and body in a given situation.

If we feel scared prior to a situation in which we feel that we have to achieve some-thing, we can be quite sure of a less satisfying performance of both mind and body. But if we manage to keep positive expectations prior to that actual situation, our per-formance will then be influenced in the opposite way. Our interpretation of how we actually managed to act in the real situation will then strengthen negative or positive expectations of how we will succeed next time we have to handle an situation of the same kind. How we actually did perform is not always of great importance for the mind. But our interpretation of the situation we have experienced is crucial for the outcome of the next situation we have to handle.

These ancient genetic, once life-saving, brain mechanisms of survival can create an ever stronger negative spiral feed-back, positive or negative. But it is of course the negative feed-back we should avoid The more we doubt, or fear not being able to handle a certain anticipated situation, the greater is the risk that our mental or physical ability will be diminished when we are there and have to act. In this way we create our own negative self-fullfilling prophecies. The capacity for positive and fruitful action in various situations of life is definitely depending on how we look on ourselves and the world.