Acting on your own reasons

For compatibilism, to be free is not to escape causes but to act on one's own reasons rather than under constraint. Still, one must tell the desires one truly endorses from those that drive us in spite of ourselves, a habit, a pressure, an impulse. This exercise teaches you to recognize when a choice really comes from you, and to realign your action with what you want to want.

1. Pick a decision in progress or a recurring behaviour that nags at you: a purchase, a too-sharp reply, a yes you regret.
2. Ask where it comes from: from reasons you could defend with a calm mind, or from a constraint, a habit, a pressure you are under?
3. Ask the decisive question: this desire that pushes you, do you want to have it? Would you act the same way following your own reasons?
4. If it comes from you, own it fully: it is free in the sense that matters, even if it has causes.
5. If it is imposed on you, look for one concrete move to take back the reins: defer, set a limit, recover the reason you endorse.

before a decision that matters, or in hindsight once the pressure has passed

Compatibilism does not promise escape from every cause: the point is not to will yourself without a past or leanings, but to tell acting on your reasons from acting under constraint. The line is not always sharp; when in doubt, ask whether, better informed and free of pressure, you would make the same choice.