More on free will ...part 2

Five Stages of the Free Will Struggle 
Level One: Self-Awareness
Become aware of the choices you're making. Life is a constant stream of decisions. Once you become sensitive to the fact that you are constantly making choices, then you can monitor them. That's using your free will actively, not passively.
Don't let decisions just "happen." Put your periscope up. Ask yourself:

Why am I reading this article right now? Am I just surfing the web? Or do I have a specific goal?

Your decisions shape your life and determine your destiny. Take charge. If you don't, you're just a pedestrian watching as life passes you by.

Level Two: Be Your Own Person
Don't accept society's beliefs as your own unless you've thought them through and agree with them. Live for yourself, not for society.
Evaluate your past decisions. Start each day anew. Don't remain bound to guidelines and determinations you made years ago, or even to ones that you made yesterday.

A particular career that you chose in college may no longer be the best thing for you today.

OR-

Just because you decided at one time that there's no God, does not mean you can't find more evidence today and make a more informed decision.

Check your assumptions and make sure that they are really yours and not someone else's. Don't be a puppet of society.

Level Three: Distinguish Between Body and Soul
Within each of us, a fierce battle is raging constantly. It's a battle between the cravings of our body, versus the aspirations of our soul.
There are times when you know objectively that something is good for you, but your physical desires get in the way and distort your outlook.
Here's how the battle-lines break down:

BODY: Gravitates toward transitory comforts and sensual pleasures. Desires to quit, to dream, to drown in passions, to procrastinate. Says: "Give me some food, warmth, a pillow - and let me take life easy." Looks for the escape of sleep... slipping away into death

SOUL: Seeks understanding, meaning, productivity, accomplishment, permanence, greatness. Confronts challenges. Embraces reality and truth.

A wise man meets  a group of soldiers returning from a victorious war and says, "Friends, you are returning from a minor battle. Now you are going to face a major war. The war within yourselves."
This is the battle of the free will. Even when you have just won the battle, the enemy is always in your camp, beside you constantly. No matter how far you run, he'll come after you.
Sometimes we can actually hear ourselves fighting it out. Here's a conversation you may have had with yourself:

Soul: "Let's set some goals."

Body: "Leave me alone, I'd rather sleep."

Soul: "Come on, let's be great!"

Body: "Relax, what's the big deal if we wait till tomorrow?"

What's going on? Are you schizophrenic? Nope. Just battling opposing sides within yourself.
Don't be ambushed by your body. Identify whether it's your body or your soul talking. Until then, you don't even know why you've made a decision.
Avoid the escape routes. Choose what is meaningful and productive. Choose life.

Level Four: Identify With Your Soul, Not Your Body
Point to yourself. Who are you?
Your soul is the real you.

Body says: "I'm hungry."

Soul says: "My body needs some food."

Body says: "I'm tired."

Soul says: "My body needs some sleep."

Attain inner peace. Achieve mastery over your body by identifying with your soul. "The righteous talk to their bodily desires, while evil people let their desires talk to them." The question is who's running the show? Who will dictate what you're going to do?

You are trying to diet and someone offers you a luscious rich slice of chocolate fudge cake. Your first reaction is "No, I shouldn't, I'm on a strict diet." But as you gaze at the cake, your body speaks persuasively: "Just a little piece, it won't hurt. Start the diet tomorrow."

Great strategy - score one for the body!
Notice how the body doesn't say "Forget the diet, eat the cake, be fat." The body knows that you'll reject that reasoning altogether.
Instead, the body lets you believe you can give in just a tiny bit, yet still be in control. But the body is relentless, and each time you give in, it will be harder to resist the next time.
So what's a good counter-attack?
Beat the body at its own game. Coax the body the same way that it coaxes you.
You want to keep to an exercise routine? Don't tell your body: "From now on, every morning, 50 pushups." Instead tell it: "We'll exercise for five minutes. Then we'll have some cake."

A jogger, is out for the first time on a long run. The body protests: "Don't be a masochist... we'll have a heart attack... we'll never make it beyond this corner... stop already!" Only firm willpower can squelch the body's resistance and get it to comply. How? By constantly reassuring it of the higher value of being in shape, thin and healthy. "This is what you really want... Think how much better you'll feel... You'll be respected... Imagine how much longer you may live!"

Two months later, if you skip one day of jogging, the body says, "Hey, I missed the pleasure of that workout, what's going on?"
The only way to win is to get to the body to desire what the soul wants. Because there's no way you'll ever achieve peace by giving in to the body. Your soul will simply not give up. Never.
But the body can go along with the soul. And although it "hurts" a little to walk away from a lusting, we can survive without it. It's the only practical choice. Real peace comes only when the body desires the soul's success.

Level Five: Make Your Will God's Will
The highest stage of free will is not when you ask yourself, "What does my soul want?" It's when you ask yourself, "What does God want?" When that is your prime interest, you will have achieved the highest form of living. You are using your free will to merge with the most meaningful and powerful force in the universe: the transcendental.

Free will is the choice between life and death. Attach yourself to God and you will be attached to eternity - the ultimate form of life itself.
Make your will His will. If you do, you'll be a little less than God Himself.Partners in changing the world.