Well you're right in that we have constraints based on
   stereotyped patterns of behavior and thinking that we've grown
   accustomed to.

   How much we're born with / how much we're made of course is an
   open question, but it's a matter of degrees.

   I have a basic temperament. I have tendencies to think or act in
   certain ways, based on my biological limitations. I'm 1/2 deaf
   and 1/2 blind, born premature, yet nobody would know any
   different unless I told them.

   Other biological limitations on how my brain is constructed may
   have to do with cerebral palsy. [they said I have it, and as a
   child they worked on my brain plasticity to overcome it].

   I don't know if I had it or not. There's no way to tell unless
   they scan my brain and find a few spots that got re-routed,
   buried deep within somewhere. [probably around my amygdala
   somewhere I suspect].

   So "willing yourself" has limitations. But not insurmountable.
   Just takes work.