To others, freedom means security and safety. But it is neither of these. Rose Wilder Lane, in her brilliant book, The Discovery of Freedom , defined freedom as self control. This simple, elegant definition is used here. Internal self control means control of your short term desires.
External control means avoiding control by others.
To a surprisingly large extent, most people have far more opportunity for control than they realize, but usually choose not to exercise it. Internal Control Control of short term desires is what the Dutch philosopher Spinoza called passions. It is very easy to get addicted to things that bring instant gratification and short term pleasure. But too often, these instant pleasures are obtained at the expense of more important, long range goals. Simply stated, this is like the difference between spending and saving.