When I make up my mind, I become someone definite. Then I am this one person with this will, different from all others.

But this will is still formal. That means: I have decided, yes. But what I decided still comes from my drives. It is not yet the work of my freedom. The decision is mine, but I find the material already there.

Now a surprising thought. Many people think: In willing, a human being is infinite. After all, I can want all sorts of things. In thinking, by contrast, he is limited, they say. This is exactly the wrong way around.

Why? In thinking, everything stays general. I can think about any tree, about any person, about everything. In willing, this does not work. Willing means: I want this, here and now. Whoever wants something must commit. So finitude begins with willing. Whoever passes from thinking to willing decides to be limited.

How does the will get beyond this? By rising again to thinking. By choosing purposes that are universal and rational in themselves. Then the will no longer belongs just to me. It becomes an objective, infinite will.

Why do some people find it so hard to commit? A person without character never comes to a decision. Others hesitate out of delicate feeling. They know: Whoever decides gives up other things. But they want to keep everything. Such a soul thinks it is beautiful. In truth, it is dead. And for some, it is simply too much effort. Laziness prefers to keep on brooding, for there everything is still possible. But possibility is not yet reality.

Goethe said it: Whoever wants great things must be able to limit himself. Only through a decision does a person step into reality, however hard it may be for him. And whoever is sure of himself does not lose himself when he commits.

Summary: Willing means committing yourself. That is why the will is not more infinite than thinking, but more finite. It only becomes free when it gives itself rational purposes.