Tag Archives: Stress Reduction

Fate or Personal Choice

Many years ago, during one of my life coaching classes, I took part in a discussion of fate versus personal choice.  It wasn’t surprising, because of the subject matter, to see everyone in the class pick the argument that our lives are totally ours to choose what to do.  I found myself standing alone among two dozen people.  My argument is that life is both.

I’ve always had a hard time making the argument for one versus the other.  To say everything is fated takes away any freedom in our choices and to say that everything is personal choice takes away the possibility of a bigger picture (a view larger than all of us combined.)

I maintain that the universe, God, the collective consciousness – life – has at least an overview of a designed path for each of us.  Within that design we have the free will to choose whatever direction we want, including the ability to go completely opposite of the big picture.  The issue that arises is that life isn’t always clear about which direction it wants us to take.  This leads to a lot of bumbling around, testing different options, and making some less than perfect moves.

What I’ve found is if the desired direction is a very important one, life will keep throwing it in front of you, no matter how many times you wonder away from it.  Writing this blog is a good example.  I’ve been told by a multitude of people over the past four or five years that I should be sharing my thoughts with everyone.  I kept choosing to not do it, and yes I had plenty of excuses of why I couldn’t do it – it wasn’t always a conscious choice to turn away.  Yet, time and again someone else would bring it back to my attention until now when I decided to follow it.

I don’t know why it so important for me to write this regularly, but it is.  Maybe it’s to help you with your life path choices.  Maybe it’s to help me with my life choices.  Maybe it’s some of both.  While the final goal may not be clear, it is clear this is what I should be doing and I’ve made a choice to do it.  I can say that a part of me is relieved and excited about this path while another part is scared and stressed, but that’s a story for another day.

The point I’m trying to make is life has a design, a fate if you will, for each of us.  At the same time, we have the free will to choose whatever direction we want to follow, regardless of how that fits with the big design.  The best part of being able to make our own choices is that we never have to stay with any one choice.  If one way isn’t right, we can go another way or another way.

If you find yourself really stressing over the path you are on, it’s probably because there are new choices for you to make.  Is it time to make a different choice to get a different, and maybe better, result?  Who knows it might relieve the stress and increase your life’s excitement.

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