Wednesday, 1 August 2012

Of Fate & Destiny, & how we shape our Course



Destiny or fate is a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual. It is a concept based on the belief that there is a fixed natural order to the cosmos– Source, Wikipedia

We all try to live life on the positive, live with big dreams and high aspirations. We pray for the  light to shine so brightly on us that we will succeed in almost anything we undertake, yet we know we will fail or be rejected in majority of what we do (or they to do), and still push on despite all shortcomings. That is the ideal view of ‘perseverance’, but unfortunately most of us do not have this instilled in us and tend to take shortcuts. So where does fate/destiny come in?? While majority do know that we will not succeed in everything we do, we tend to be too hopeful. There are some people that have tried and tried, time and time again, to succeed in whatever they attempt but to no avail. For instance, someone may decide to open up a business, it does well for the first few months then flops out of the blue. A deal that looked promising at one time may fall apart suddenly. As a result the affected party may say “I am cursed”, or “This is fate, I wasn’t meant to succeed in this area”. This is a swan song that many of us sing a lot of the time, whenever something goes wrong, the automatic response is: “Fate caused this”, and we basically give up o whatever we were pursuing.

Think about it; is it really fate?? Did fate decide that you are the one who will never succeed in life? Did fate decide that you will never get that job? Did fate decide? Has fate let you down that much? Well, my brothers and sisters, the simple answer is that you are the instigator of your shortcomings, you have let yourself down. “Fate”, is an excuse we give ourselves. Whenever something goes wrong, we blame it all on “fate” so as to excuse ourselves from the blame. So we let leave, abandon the cause and just slump to submission.
We need to realize that what distinguishes a successful person from a failure is the willingness to succeed no matter the weight of the obstacle. If we do not achieve our set goals due to an event, we should not give up because “I was not meant to do this”. Instead, we should formulate a new strategy to overcome our failures. An illustration is where we are walking down a path and we see a huge rock on the path, we cannot get through the rock using brute force, so we try hammering away, and the rock is too thick to break through. Should we give up and go back? Did fate decide that we meet the rock and not go through it? No. We should formulate another way to bypass this obstacle, say, go round it. What if this does not work? Well then, we can decide to go back the route and equip ourselves with the necessary artillery to go through the rock, say, come back with a bulldozer.  Those who do this will eventually realize their dreams and expectations.

To conclude, we should not let fate/destiny shape our future. Instead, we should take our future by the scruff of the neck and dictate the course we take ourselves. Remember the saying, “If you do not succeed, try and try again”. Where you fail in an attempt, find out why you failed, work on it, and come back stronger, better, and more willing to succeed.  With a positive attitude, hardwork, dedication and belief in God, there is no way that is impassable. 

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