The  cliché that a man is the architect of his own destiny is a valid slogan, provided that how the web of destiny is fashioned is understood. Without a clear understanding of an issue, knowledge is of little value, therefore, it is necessary to add understanding, which is synonymous with wisdom, to knowledge. From organ harvesting, to success or  failure at political elections, the issue of destiny arising from interactive medley of cause and effect, is always involved. Thus, there is hardly any logic in referring to any event as an accident. One thing gives rise to another.
Adaptation is defined as the process by which something changes or is changed so that it can be used in a different way or in different conditions. This follows that adaptation can come about through internal as well as external stimulus, or both. In the case of human beings, adaptation coming from internal stimulus has to do with exercise of the free will or personal volition, of which everybody has equal right of use. Free will or personal volition can be mis-used or wrongly applied, for which an individual bears an inescapable burden of correcting as soon as possible. A free will, once mis-used, becomes a bound-will, until the wrong application is corrected, which can take a long time and demanding an improved personal awareness. A long chain or series of wrongly-used free will combine to form heavy back-log of burdens that must be redressed as various opportunities arise. But such load of wrongly used will becomes increasing liabilities for an individual, which can become lighter only through increasing awareness and a change for the better.
Arising from recalcitrance, indolence and ignorance, a large number of people condition themselves to remain complacent, obtuse and creating a comfort zone for themselves, which would result in giving little thought to the pending loads that must be redressed. The danger of living in a self-created comfort zone is that recalcitrance and obtuseness bring about an adaptation which becomes a mindset and a habit. The situation gets worse if some narcotic addiction or any other form of propensity becomes an added value. At the end of the day, a continuing estrangement from the demands and realities of life, results in the forfeiture of the opportunity of being guided by a still, small voice within.
The proverbial opium of the masses becomes a ready and most common resort when some inner stirrings remind the individual that the self-created comfort zone is not an ideal harbour of refuge. So, the internal provisions to change for the better towards revisiting the wrongly-applied personal volition, urge the individual from time to time, to embrace some higher values. It has become fashionable that norm-oriented institutions resort to the old practice of “sale of indulgence”, whereby individuals are lured into the broad, smooth road, while the rigours of the narrow, thorny road attract no patronage. Going for lines of least resistance is common! We cannot deny the fact that nothing great and worthwhile can be achieved without diligent efforts and personal sacrifices. Therefore, the task of regaining the freedom of personal free will which had been long bound, mortgaged and wrongly applied, is a task that must be addressed, sooner or later. From within the individual there is always the stimulus to do so, in which process, opportunities come in distasteful ways.
Resources and abilities which are not developed and utilised diligently, gradually become stunted and lost to those guilty of such personal negligence. Such loss does not only constitute a stand-still in the process of continual progression, but becomes a retrogression when an individual succumbs to the temptation of accepting the condition as a norm.  Thus through a slump in the urge towards self-exertion and on-ward movement, adaptation comes about as a self-created condition. With regard to the encumbrance on personal free-will, it becomes more and more difficult to break away from the self-created groove, and forge ahead. Resort to palliative measures rarely help matters.
The process of maturing towards advanced states of consciousness demands that there be no interruption. But a situation where an individual gives in to the temptation of relaxing in a comfort zone rather than strive on in spite of challenges, advancement towards higher state of consciousness would  be hard. The mis-applied, mortgaged or “bound” free will must be set free again, despite the pains involved in such retrieval process. A major obstacle which makes a free expression of personal volition difficult is the domineering nature of sensory perception of issues. Obviously, sensory perception is grossly limited.
What we call free will is the uninfluenced and uninterrupted expression of the “still, small voice”, speaking to or directing an individual on what is right to do. But when the prompting of the spirit in man is not heeded but blocked, that means a forfeiture of the message of the free will. Then what comes next would be mere damage-control measures intended to pay for the harm already done.
Since no one is free from failures to heed the free will, but merely striving to mend the results of such numerous failures, a majority of humans bear this burden of mending past lapses. It is a long-standing task that must be addressed, because to regain the free will is to reposition an individual in a status of access to infallible guidance in the affairs and challenges of life. Human decisions, choices and strategies fail largely because of the guilt of mortgaging or blocking the free will. What we exercise as personal will or volition is merely the repayment of interests accruing from pending debts. Until we come to clean, debt-free standing, we remain bound to the conditionality of the law of adaptation.
What is referred to here as the law of adaptation is an extension of a provision of continuous movement in life, whereby an individual’s choice to remain in a self-made comfort zone, allows the individual to remain there. Through a process of self-conditioning, an individual adapts himself to where he has kept himself, and feels comfortable and satisfied there. But complacence and docility do not keep life in a healthy motion. Neither would a stand-still be allowed! Decisions, choices and plans of individuals and nations which turn out wrong and unfruitful at the end, are consequences of wrong adaptations. Things do not get right by adding errors to old wrongs. Neither would blusters, subterfuge and mendacity help matters. From mountain load of national debts, to ISWAP being responsible for banditry in Nigeria, the nation must get out of the wood by coming out of self-created comfort zone, and adapt to the new reality.

By: Bright Amirize

Dr Amirize is a retired lecturer from the Rivers State University, Port Harcourt.