Full Idea
I want to be free means: I myself want to make myself be whatever I will be. I would therefore …already have to be, in a certain sense, what I am to become, so that I could make myself be it.
Gist of Idea
Freedom means making yourself become true to your essential nature
Source
Johann Fichte (The Vocation of Man [1800], 1)
Book Reference
Fichte,Johann G.: 'The Vocation of Man', ed/tr. Preuss,Peter [Hackett 1987], p.22
A Reaction
This is much closer to the existenial picture of the malleable self, which Fichte arrives out once he commits to his desperate desire to have free will. [Not sure if my gist captures what he says].
Related Ideas
Idea 23234 I cannot change the nature which has been determined for me [Fichte]
Idea 23235 I want independent control of the fundamental cause of my decisions [Fichte]