Volition

The Word of the Day for September 26 is "volition."

volition: (noun) 1. The act or instance of making a conscious choice or decision.
      2.  A conscious choice or decision.
      3. The power or faculty of choosing; the will.

Synonyms: willing**

Usage: Without volition I leaned toward her, as a tree is swayed by the wind.

Relevance to my life: Stripped of my volition, I heeded the siren song of chocolate and, giving in, baked a batch of my Crisis Brownies.

It often comes conveniently pre-packaged in the expression "of one's own volition," which is a synonym for "willingly" as in:

The brutal case of pneumonia I had suffered that Estonian winter had left me so weakened and anemic that, one day upon entering the house and smelling the liver sizzling in the skillet, I rushed into the kitchen and, of my own volition, devoured a heaping helping of the iron-rich meat.*

What it is NOT: "violation" - I can only consider your reading my emails and IMs a volition of my privacy. wrong

* I hate liver. Offal is, well, awful. Hell, I was a Vegan for some years, but gave in because, dammit, sometimes I just want a juicy steak.

**Actually, I am not in complete agreement with TheFreeDictionary here. Technically, "willing" is not a synonym for "volition" since "willing" is an adjective and "volition" a noun. A better straight synonym would be the noun "will."