Things to act, and things to be acted
upon
This is a post I've been meaning to
write for a long time. I've hesitated because it discusses such a
huge, deep subject that I haven't known where to begin. And, like
Haruki Murakami says, when you put something profound into ordinary
words, it loses its magic and seems silly and hollow. Anyway, here's
a stab at it, so wish me luck.
What I've been meaning to talk about
revolves around agency, and how we use it. Agency, from my
perspective, is defined as the freedom and capacity to choose, to
make choices. It may sound simple, and we almost always take it for
granted. But it happens to be, in my book, the second most
fundamental principle of the universe – the first being love
itself.
So what is it about agency I want to
discuss? Well, it's how we use it – or rather don't use
it – that matters. The basic idea is this: agency is about making
choices, but too often we don't. Rather than deliberately choosing
how we want to live our lives, we simply react to forces around us.
The reason this is a problem is that using agency is the key to just
about everything good in life. Or, at the very least, it is an
important ingredient in just about everything in life that has real
value.
Everything in the
universe can be roughly placed in one of two groups: those possessing
agency and those without it. And among those possessing agency, every
creature can be placed on a scale ranging from least to greatest
degree of freedom. There are, in other words, “things to act,”
and “things to be acted upon,” in the words of an ancient
American prophet.
Human beings
clearly fall into the category of those with agency: we have the
capacity and freedom to make our own choices, limited though we may
be by a host of structural forces, from the laws of physics to
authoritarian regimes. All too often, however, we behave not as
“things to act,” but more like “things to be acted upon.”
What I mean is that we all too often let ourselves be acted upon by
outside forces, and our lives become controlled and defined by them.
We spend our lives reacting, rather than acting.
I know
this is personally true in my own life. Constantly fearful of letting
people down, or failing to come through on things I have promised
others I would do, I spend a good deal of my time reacting to the
demands of others. In school, for instance, I did homework and
studied for tests primarily because I felt that signing up for a
class was a commitment on my part to do everything the professor
asked. I therefore felt I was reacting to my professors' demands and
expectations, rather than acting for my own benefit. Instead, I
should have studied because I
chose to, because I wanted to learn. That would have been a much more
satisfying way to approach my studies.
There are lots of
problems with reacting instead of acting. The first that comes to my
mind is that reactions are based almost always on fear, rather than
hope. So if reaction is our primary mode of living, we are allowing
fear to rule our lives and make our decisions for us. None of us
wants that to be the case, but it happens all too easily – by
default, in fact.
The
second, and perhaps most important, is that the active
use of agency is essential to personal growth, happiness, and
progress. We cannot overcome our weaknesses and start becoming who we
want to be without actively using our agency. We have to choose what
we want for ourselves, then go out and make it happen. Reaction, on
the other hand, means passively waiting around for external forces to
buffet us from one forced decision to another.
An astute reader
might ask, “but isn't the decision to study for tests the same,
whether or not you did it in reaction to the demands of another or
because you chose to do so for yourself? Aren't you studying in
either case?” Very true. And I did well in school, despite a less
than maximal use of agency. There is an important difference,
however, even though it is often hard to distinguish from the
outside.
From
my perspective, there are two kinds of actions: deliberate and
undeliberate. The first I call “choices” and the second
“reactions.” The difference lies in the heart of the agent (the
one possessing agency and engaging in action). A choice reflects
inner desire, intention, hope. A reaction reflects little, other than
a decision (probably made unconsciously) not to
use agency; and, of course, fear.
In my opinion this
internal difference, the decision to use or neglect agency, is a
crucial turning-point on which our mortal lives hinge. Those of us
who decide to actively use our agency to realize our desires (for
ourselves, others, and the world) will unlock an immense source of
power and will go much further towards realizing our potential than
those who do not. Worst of all, if we default on our use of agency,
we may go through this life without even discovering what it is we
want, or who we are. That, in my mind, would truly be a tragedy.
Our
immense endowment of agency is what sets us humans apart from
everything else in the universe. The key to using it is to be
deliberate. To live
deliberately. Don't live life
from day to day, reacting to needs, demands, and fears. If you do
something, choose to
do it. And know the reason why
you are doing it. If you honestly can't find a reason, or don't agree
that it is valid, have the courage not to do it. Instead, choose to
do something more worth while.
Key questions I ask
myself are
- Why am I doing this? Is it something I really want to be doing?
- Am I doing this because someone else wants me to? Or because I choose to?
- How deliberately am I living my life?
Don't
misunderstand: living deliberately doesn't mean living selfishly. On
the contrary, doing things for other people is one of the greatest
sources of happiness you can find. The difference lies in the reason
behind your action: are you doing it because you fear to offend
someone by saying no? Or because you want to serve them because you
love them? One is a reaction, the other a choice. The guiding principle is that conscious choices are likely to lead us to happiness, whereas reactions will likely not.
This dichotomy of
action and reaction, of acting or being acted upon, will start
cropping up everywhere you look, once you wrap your mind around it.
Above all, as you start to notice it in your own life, you will be
presented with the opportunity to reclaim your agency – a God-given
birthright that only you can take away from you.
This principle will
also start cropping up in my posts. I've wanted to mention it many
times before now, but held off until I wrote this article.
I'll end with the
words of the same ancient American prophet who first drew my
attention to the concept. Before he died, he said to his sons,
“Awake... arise from the dust and be men.” Shifting from reaction
to a deliberate, action-centered life is a lot like waking up –
waking up to the reality of our potential. May the inspired, wise
words of this prophet be a wake-up call for all of us.
