Pushing Your Luck
DESTINY, FREEWILL & LUCK
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
On this celebration day of the Irish, and their supposed luck, let's look at how people look at good fortune, destiny and freewill.
So, God or no God, blessed or cursed by freewill, just how much are you in control? Is the story of your life a blank book waiting to be filled? Or are you acting out a script that has already been written for you? For that matter, do you make your own luck, or just improve your odds? Whether you feel that life is more math than mystery, or more mystery than math, your POV will play a large part in how you see your life's story, and your role in it.
Life Isn’t About Finding Yourself. Life is for Creating Yourself. - George Bernard Shaw
Your life isn’t hiding behind some tree. It’s not buried in some treasure chest waiting to be unearthed. Your life is pretty much what you make of it. So just what and whom are you creating? What do you want to do with your life? And how will you do it? Like it or not, you are indeed the hero of your own story, fighting for your purpose and your why. And wondering how destiny and luck may or may not play a part.
Everything Happens for a Reason. But Sometimes that Reason is that You’re Stupid and Make Bad Decisions. – Bill Murray, Comedian, Master Mischief Maker, Rabid Chicago Cubs Fan, Random Party Crasher
BOOM! Another truth bomb goes off. Leaving in its aftermath, our greatest gift, and perhaps our greatest curse—free will. Blame who you want, but most of the time, your mistakes and mishaps are on you. You have to learn from your mistakes-- scrap scapegoating-- and move on. And keep in mind something
Arthur Schopenhauer said, What People Commonly Call Fate is, as a General Rule, Nothing but Their Own Stupid and Foolish Conduct. KA-BOOM! A whole cluster bomb of truth just detonated.
You Make Your Own Luck
Yes and no. You can improve your odds and put yourself in a better position to succeed, but there is still luck luck. The sheerly incidental, accidental and serendipitous things that one cannot control. Thinking you can completely control luck is fating yourself a bad outcome. Unless you're lucky, of course.
I Don’t Believe it is My Destiny but My Duty to Help People Where I Can Offer Help. - Nelson Mandela
Are great leaders born or made? Are you waiting for a sign to tell you what you’re supposed to do, or are you pressing ahead until you can make sense of things? Some people feel they have a calling from someone/something beyond them. That they were born to do a certain something. Others are simply making the most of what they’ve got with the faith that something good will come out of it. Not needing a pre-ordained destiny to make a move, or a difference. Choosing self-reliance over magical thinking. Like believing in lucky numbers or a rabbit’s foot.
See the World as Math and Not Magic
From the laws of quantum physics to social psychology, much of life is fairly mechanical. Calculated. Even orderly. If you stand back, you’re bound to see a certain rhyme or reason to how things work. If you don’t look for such objective patterns, you start looking for supernatural answers. Magical thinking. Even conspiracies. While we can’t make sense of everything, trying to come to a rational understanding based on reason is better than relying on superstition, myths and luck.
Man is a Being with Free Will; Therefore, Each Man is Potentially Good or Evil, and It’s Up to Him and Only Him to Decide What He Wants to Be. - Ayn Rand, Author, Philosopher, Hypocrite & Extremely Unpleasant Person
The religious and non-religious alike have claimed the concept of free will as their own. They just come to it from different angles. With different ideas on what constitutes good and bad, and success and failure.
People Who Are Induced to Believe Less in Free Will Are More Likely to Behave Immorally. – Kathleen Vohs, Psychologist, University of Utah
Hmmm... It’s not my fault. If you’re not in control, couldn’t you say that about your actions? That they’re not your fault. After all, how could you be held accountable? Would you even try? Seems that if there’s no one to blame, that we allow things to slide. Including our morals. We feel less responsible, and we give in to our appetites. Physical and emotional. It’s true.
A Black Cat Crossing Your Path Signifies that the Animal is Going Somewhere.?- Groucho Marx, Classic Quick-witted Comedian & Avid Cigar Smoker
Causality vs Correlation. It may be the Battle of the Century. Just because two things happen at once, doesn’t mean that one caused the other. However, many people will declare such coincidences as fact, if it validates their personal beliefs and narratives.
When You Believe in Things That You Don’t Understand, Then You Suffer; Superstition Ain’t the Way. - Superstition by Stevie Wonder, Iconic Genius +
Remember the title of the first playlist: Embrace Reality? Superstition is the opposite of reality. No matter how much you cross your fingers or rub your lucky rabbit’s foot, you won’t be any luckier than before.
Fooling yourself with superstition is an irrational reaction to fear. An empty attempt to master reality with a false sense of control. But superstition won’t make you happy.
Yet, we desire happiness so badly that we lie to ourselves. Blind ourselves.?With silly superstitions and wishful thinking. Makes one wonder if this manic quest for happiness has led us down a rabbit hole.
Until You Make the Unconscious Conscious, It Will Direct Your Life and You Will Call It Fate. – Carl Jung
To know reality, you need to know yourself. To draw from the well of your mind and bring forth your subconscious thoughts.
In Every Regard, It Seems, When We Embrace Determinism, We Indulge Our Dark Side. – Stephen Cave, Philosopher & Writer for The Atlantic
When we abdicate responsibility, we accept lower standards. Sometimes standards that plunge to scary depths. Watch out for those spouting that destiny is guiding them. Sometimes they'll be guiding you to places you don't want to go.
Success is a Lousy Teacher. It Seduces Smart People into Thinking They Can’t Lose. – Bill Gates, Tech Pioneer & Philanthropist
Experience is the best teacher. Or so we’ve been told. But experience can make us overconfident. Cocky. And blind to the real underlying reasons why something worked or didn’t work in the past. Sometimes we forget or don’t fully understand our own successes. (Or failures.) And sometimes, we’re just lucky, yet are pretty impressed by ourselves.
All of Us Have Bad Luck- Who Keeps Right On Going- is the Person Who is There When the Good Luck Comes- and is Ready to Receive it. - Robert Collier
Perseverance can carry you over troubled waters. If you can keep standing, you have a good chance of being in a good position when things finally circle back. And they normally do.
You Never Know What Worse Luck Your Bad Luck Has Saved You From. - Cormac McCarthy
Even when things don't work out in the short-run, sometimes you get spared in the long-run. That's one reason not to allow yourself to get too high or too low. Hang in there, sometimes it's the best you can do.
May You Find a 4-Leaf Clover Today!
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Good luck today!
Good luck tomorrow!
And from this time forward!
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