Science Says You Have No Free Will. Here's Why You Must Ignore It.

As President of PFR and a Personal Finance Professor at JMU, I've spent years observing one persistent barrier to success: fatalism. The belief that our outcomes—financial, professional, or personal—are fixed by forces beyond our control. This idea, rooted in the philosophy of Determinism, finds powerful support in modern science, particularly neuroscience.

Scientists like Robert Sapolsky argue that every choice is merely the inevitable output of our determined neurobiology. If we adopt this mindset, we are engaging the "Backward Gaze"—constantly analyzing the past to explain our present limits. This leads to paralysis, poor goal setting, and the acceptance of the status quo.

But while Determinism may be technically correct about the past, it’s completely useless for the future.

At PFR, we champion the "Forward Gaze." This perspective leverages the reality of human consciousness, described by the Global Neuronal Workspace Theory (GNWT). Our conscious goals function as powerful, top-down selectors, enabling flexible, purposeful action. What we experience as "free will" is simply the most useful, adaptive operating system for setting these goals.

We teach our clients and students to embrace this useful fiction. We replace the fallacy of seeking one "rational" answer with the process of determining the answer most rational for them. Through techniques like Choice Architecture, we help you design your environment to make the choices aligned with your goals—your free will—the easiest ones to execute.

Don't let a deterministic past dictate a predictable future. It's time to choose the freedom that fuels growth. It’s time to activate your Free Will Program.

(Watch the full video on our YouTube channel: "Science Says You Have No Free Will. Ignore It.")