Picture Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the spring of 1870. A young doctor sits with his diary. He is twenty eight, living back home with his parents, and for months his days have felt heavy and gray.
Then he reads a French philosopher’s definition of free will, and something turns. On April 30 he writes a sentence that will shape the rest of his life, and much of American psychology along with it.
My first act of free will shall be to believe in free will.
That young doctor was William James. And his one decision holds a gift for anyone who feels a little foggy at the end of a long October week. You get to choose where your mind goes today. That choice is where everything begins.
This is part of Timeless Authors, our daily series on the writers who change ordinary days. Recently we took to the open road with Walt Whitman. Today William James shows us how attention, habit and belief quietly build a life.
William James (1842 to 1910)
American philosopher and psychologist, the father of American psychology and a joyful teacher of habit, attention and the will.
The Teaching of William James
William James taught that your life takes the shape of what you choose to notice and what you choose to repeat. Attention decides what becomes real to you. Habit carries your best choices forward with ease. And belief, chosen bravely, helps create the very life it believes in.
My first act of free will shall be to believe in free will.
William James, diary entry, April 30, 1870, in The Letters of William James, Vol. 1
He was twenty eight when he wrote that, and he had every reason to feel lost. Instead, he decided. Belief became his first action, and action became his medicine. That is a choice you can make before breakfast.
In Their Own Words, Favorite and Lesser Known Quotes
These lines come from The Principles of Psychology (1890), Talks to Teachers (1899) and a handful of his essays and letters, all free to read online.
On Attention
My experience is what I agree to attend to. Only those items which I notice shape my mind.
William James, The Principles of Psychology, Chapter XI, Attention (1890)
Read that one twice. Your mind is a garden, and attention is the watering can. Whatever you notice today gets to grow.
each of us literally chooses, by his ways of attending to things, what sort of a universe he shall appear to himself to inhabit.
William James, The Principles of Psychology, Chapter XI, Attention (1890)
Oof, yes. The universe you live in this morning is partly the one you agree to see. Look for kindness and you start finding it everywhere.
And the faculty of voluntarily bringing back a wandering attention, over and over again, is the very root of judgment, character, and will.
William James, The Principles of Psychology, Chapter XI, Attention (1890)
Meditation teachers would cheer for this line. The wandering is natural. The gentle return is the practice, and every return makes you stronger.
On Habit
the great thing in all education is to make our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy.
William James, Talks to Teachers, VIII, The Laws of Habit (1899)
James loved habit because it frees you. Every good routine you put on autopilot hands your best energy back to the things you love.
Seize the very first possible opportunity to act on every resolution you make, and on every emotional prompting you may experience in the direction of the habits you aspire to gain.
William James, Talks to Teachers, VIII, The Laws of Habit (1899)
That warm little nudge to call a friend, stretch, write the page? Act on it right away. James saw the moment of action as the moment a resolution truly takes root.
Keep the faculty of effort alive in you by a little gratuitous exercise every day.
William James, Talks to Teachers, VIII, The Laws of Habit (1899)
One small, voluntary brave act a day. A cool rinse at the end of your shower, the stairs over the elevator, the dishes done tonight. Effort is a muscle, and it loves daily practice.
On Becoming
He can with perfect certainty count on waking up some fine morning to find himself one of the competent ones of his generation, in whatever pursuit he may have singled out.
William James, Talks to Teachers, VIII, The Laws of Habit (1899)
This is one of the most encouraging sentences ever written about work. Keep showing up, hour by hour, and one fine morning you wake up good at the thing you love.
On Energy and Belief
Compared with what we ought to be, we are only half awake.
William James, The Energies of Men (1907)
Hold this one gently. James meant it as an invitation. You carry reserves of energy and joy you have barely touched, and the right practice can wake them up.
Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.
William James, Is Life Worth Living? (1895), in The Will to Believe
This is James at his warmest. Belief, for him, was a brave act that changes what happens next.
Who Was William James?
William James was born on January 11, 1842, at the Astor House hotel in New York City, the eldest child in a remarkable family. His younger brother Henry became the famous novelist, and his sister Alice became known as a gifted diarist.
He was educated by tutors and in schools across America and Europe, studied painting for a while and then turned to science. He earned his medical degree from Harvard in 1869. Shortly afterward came the long gray season of poor health and low spirits that ended with his famous diary entry in the spring of 1870.
In 1872 he began teaching at Harvard, where he stayed until he retired in 1907. He built one of the first experimental psychology laboratories in America and spent twelve years writing The Principles of Psychology, finally published in 1890.
He married Alice Howe Gibbens in 1878 and credited her with steadying him through a wonderfully productive life. Friends remembered a playful, curious man and a spontaneous teacher who loved conversation as much as ideas.
He went on to write The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902) and Pragmatism (1907). He died of heart failure on August 26, 1910, at his summer home in Chocorua, New Hampshire. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy tells his full story.
What Believing in Free Will Really Means
James’s big idea can sound abstract, like something argued in a seminar room. It lands in the most ordinary places. The moment your phone lights up. The second breath before you snap at someone you love. The pause between the alarm and the snooze button.
Free will, for James, lived right there, in the small act of holding one thought steady while another one pulls at you. Every time you bring your attention back, you are practicing it.
So instead of asking whether you have enough willpower, try asking where you will place your attention next.
If you loved this, our guide to if then planning turns his habit maxims into a simple daily tool, and James Allen on thought and vision sings in the same key.
Why This Teaching Fits Today
It’s Friday, the end of the week, the moment when Monday’s resolutions either take root or drift away. James would call this the perfect day to act on one.
It’s also the last weekend of October. Halloween arrives tomorrow, and on Sunday the clocks fall back an hour. Sixty extra minutes, handed to you for free. James would ask one simple question about them. Where will you put your attention?
Turning points are beautiful places to begin a habit. The season is already changing. Let something in you change with it.
Your Morning Practice, the Attention Reset
This takes about ten minutes.
- Choose first. Before you reach for your phone, say quietly, my first act of free will today is to choose where my attention goes.
- Name your one thing. Write down the single thing that deserves your best attention today.
- Practice the return. Sit for three minutes and follow your breath. Each time your mind wanders, bring it back gently and count the return as a win.
- Act on a resolution right away. Pick one small good intention and do it within the next five minutes. Text the friend, fill the water bottle, open the document.
- Do one voluntary brave thing. Choose a tiny effort for the day, the stairs, a cool rinse, a walk around the block, and enjoy keeping your effort muscle awake.
Make it automatic with an if then plan. If I pick up my phone, then I first name the one thing that deserves my attention.
Essential Reading
- The Principles of Psychology, his masterwork, free online, with the beloved chapters on Habit and Attention.
- Talks to Teachers on Psychology, the friendliest doorway into his ideas, free on Project Gutenberg.
- The Energies of Men, a short essay on the reserves of energy you carry.
- The Will to Believe, which includes his lecture Is Life Worth Living?
- The Letters of William James, Vol. 1, where you can meet the young man behind the famous diary entry.
Quick Answers About William James
Who was William James?
William James (1842 to 1910) was an American philosopher and psychologist, born in New York City and trained as a physician at Harvard, where he taught for over three decades. He is often called the father of American psychology and is best known for The Principles of Psychology and Pragmatism.
What did William James say about attention?
In The Principles of Psychology he wrote that his experience is what he agrees to attend to. He believed that what we choose to notice shapes our minds and, in a real sense, the world we live in.
What are William James’s maxims of habit?
He offered practical maxims for building habits. Launch a new habit with a strong start, keep it going steadily until it takes root, act on every resolution at the first chance and keep your capacity for effort alive with a little voluntary exercise every day.
What did William James mean by his first act of free will?
In a diary entry on April 30, 1870, during a heavy season in his life, he decided to believe in free will as his first free act. Choosing that belief helped him act again, and it became a foundation of his later philosophy.
Where can I read William James for free?
Most of his major works are in the public domain. You can read The Principles of Psychology at Classics in the History of Psychology and find Talks to Teachers, The Will to Believe and his letters free on Project Gutenberg.
You Get to Choose Your First Act Today Too
Think back to that young doctor in 1870, writing one brave sentence in his diary. He chose a belief and let it carry him into a life of teaching, writing and joy.
Your first act of free will is waiting for you too.
My experience is what I agree to attend to.
William James, The Principles of Psychology, Chapter XI, Attention (1890)
What will you agree to attend to this weekend?
Start early. Start choosing. Start today.
Complement this with James Allen on Thought and Vision, Walt Whitman on Wonder and the Open Road and If Then Planning.
Want a calm, intentional start every day? Hold Until Sunrise is our little app for mornings that matter.
For a little goodness in your inbox every Sunday, join us here.
With love, Paolo
Sources
- The Principles of Psychology (1890), Chapter XI, Attention, Classics in the History of Psychology
- Talks to Teachers on Psychology (1899), Project Gutenberg
- The Energies of Men (1907), Wikisource
- The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy, Project Gutenberg
- The Letters of William James, Vol. 1, Project Gutenberg
- William James, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- William James, Wikiquote
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Carry this into tomorrow morning
The practice in this post lives in an app we built, Hold Until Sunrise. Your alarm becomes a moment of stillness. You hold your phone, rest with one affirmation, and let the sunrise welcome you into the day. Begin tomorrow gently and on your own terms. Find it on the App Store here.