It's true. I occasionally find myself wishing something external would show me "the way," and I've been dismissive of authority since I was a kid -- even to my own detriment at times. So I think there's something universal about this. I think learning to trust oneself is one of the most important steps in raising consciousness.
Lately I've been exploring the idea lately that a great deal of power comes from the exercise of freewill. Sounds like a truism, but not if you look closer. You're still using the same muscles if you lift a pencil as a 100 lb. barbell, but they're not both exercise. The exercise of freewill has less to do with the difficulty or importance of the decisions, I'm thinking, and more to do with the degree to which we truly decide. Though both are probably factors.
What constitutes a degree of decision? I think it's the degree to which we fully accept the decision rather than just make it. I can make a decision and continue to second guess it, or get consumed by worrying about the outcome, or even regret it for years to come. The decision is never made in those cases, is it? A decision exists in a binary state: it's either made or unmade. If you don't fully make the decision, you're really just eliminating alternatives.
I think the Buddhist principle of non-attachment to outcome also comes into play here. A decision is fully made when you can walk away and allow the universe to act on your decision. At this point, it starts to dovetail with intention/manifestation because you also have to continue to act congruently with the decision you've made or the decision is not really made. Come to think of it, a decision fully made is probably no different from an intention activated -- or should be anyway.
What would life be like if we treated evey exercise of free will as an intention?
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