This question has always fascinated me. I’ve asked this question from numerous people and based on people’s background and how much they have suffered, I get all the numbers from 1 to 10. (or even higher)

I don’t know much about our “Soul” and its effect, whether we carry something from our past life (if we had any) but I can see these factors as things that truly shape us: - Family - Surroundings/Community (somehow family again) - IQ/brain capacity and our appearance

We have no say in any of these and are totally random. Whatever we do and decide, can be traced back to these factors.

I’d like to argue we humans are static functions generating the same results if fed the same inputs. If a supercomputer can capture all the inputs from the beginning and does the required processing, we can become deterministic creatures.

Back to the first question, people like to compare themselves with people of the same age, arguing I have decided to suffer and grow at some point blah blah and because of that give more credit to their “will” and themselves.

I’d say it’s easy to compare yourself when you are 25 or 30 but do you ever compare two kids aged 5 in totally different circumstances?

Another interesting fact supporting this: In 1983, Benjamin Libet and colleagues conducted a study revealing that the brain's readiness potential (Bereitschaftspotential) begins approximately 550 milliseconds before a voluntary action. Participants reported conscious awareness of their intention to act about 200 milliseconds before the movement, suggesting that unconscious neural processes initiate actions prior to conscious awareness. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6640273/

In my mind all of this leads to “illusion of will”. Although I do not look at it in a nihilistic way, it just helps me be more humble and embrace the randomness of the world and appreciate what I have.