Fate or Choice?

Are our lives the result of fate or do we choose our lives?

Are we consigned to what our circumstances (/our pasts) allow for in the unfolding of our lives, or can we create our lives, can we be willful?

I just watched an interesting video from Marshall Goldsmith that offers a (hybrid) answer: Yes.

I found Marshall’s point (that both play a role) interesting and useful.

What’s most exciting to me is that this hybrid answer offers us a wonderful opportunity to 1) consciously create our lives (and understand the power we have to make our futures) and 2) to understand the role that our environment plays in our lives (and that we can make a numbers of choices in regards to our environments to shape them).

Either/Or thinking is seldom useful or correct (and sometimes dangerous).

When we understand the power we have, and the power of the things around us, we can make wise choices about what to do and what we (tolerate and) embrace around us.

What are you choosing? Does it serve you?

What’s around you? Does it serve you?

Similar Posts

  • Why Clarity Matters

    To paraphrase Vince Lombardi, it’s hard to be successful when you’re confused. *  *  * Get clear on what you want and pattern of actions required to create what you want. Act each and every day, always looking for what works and what doesn’t. Improve your actions until your reach desired state.

  • What Can You Really Do?

    I don’t think anything is unrealistic if you believe you can do it. – Mike Ditka Let’s get real. Let’s put aside fantasies about what we think we want. Let’s put aside marketing-fueled thoughts of how you might feel if you bought such-and-such thing or traveled to some far-off place, or whatever is being sold…

  • Be Clear

    It’s not so much how busy you are, but why you are busy. The bee is praised. The mosquito is swatted. – Mary Flannery O’Connor It’s not enough to not be passive, one must have desire. It’s not enough to move, one must have a purpose. It’s not enough to be active, one must be…

  • The Decisive Element

    I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration, I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis…