|
Chance plays a big part in our lives
Wednesday, 31 August 2005
There is a modern fad for claiming that we are entirely to blame for anything that happens to us. This philosophy is complete nonsense, as anyone who thinks about it even for a moment can surely deduce. Our decisions do play a part in our lives, but chance has a just as large, if not a larger, influence.
That luck doesn't exist is the claim of the lucky. They're the winners in life, they tell us, and it couldn't possibly be because of so accidental a thing as fortune. It was all down to their hard work and cleverness, don't you know.
But the influence of chance is everywhere you look.
Is the situation an orphaned African child, who was born HIV positive, finds herself in the fault of that child? Can a handsome lottery winner in California really claim complete credit for his success? Of course not.
Even in circumstances where hard work and good decisions played an obvious part in the outcome, there are often many chance elements at work.
Tiger Woods, for example, has clearly put in a lot of work into getting where he is today. What is also clear, however, is that he was born into the right family and with the right natural abilities to become the world's greatest golfer. Tiger's father had him practicing with a putter at nine months old and Tiger was so good by age two he made it onto television.
What if Tiger had been born into a different family where golf wasn't seen as so important? Nobody in my family plays the game, for example, and I never tried it until I was well into my 20s.
Even more to the point, what if Tiger hadn't been born with his enormous natural ability? Many people undoubtedly work as hard as him on their game, and yet can never hope to reach his achievements.
Looking back on their lives, most people can see the influence of luck in many important areas. A chance meeting can eventually lead to marriage, a career change or even a tragedy. Buying a house in an area that suddenly becomes fashionable can have a huge effect on people's wealth. While they may kid themselves they were clever, often it just comes down to dumb luck.
Where you were born, what family you were born into and what natural abilities you were born with can define your entire life.
Those who proclaim that your choices are the only influence on your situation are just selling you a line. It's obvious to anyone with open eyes. Such falsehoods may be great for motivation - but ultimately lying to yourself isn't going to help things.
This doesn't mean that your decisions have no influence on your outcomes, or even play only a minor part. The balance between chance and free will in determining where you end up seems to be about even.
Like players in a game, we have no control over the cards we are dealt, but we can influence our chances of winning through the skill with which we play. A great card player can still win from a bad hand, but he can't direct what gets dealt to begin with.
 | Spend some time living in another country | | Many people will read the title of this article and dismiss the advice as too impractical or scary. What could be more difficult than upping-sticks and moving to another country? Yet I'm convinced that in most cases, those who do so for a time find that it contributes substantially to their well-being. Here are some reasons why. |  | Don't be a believer in fast and easy solutions to life's big problems | | We all face big problems in this life. Things that dominate our psyche for a time and conspire to make us miserable. Nobody escapes at least some of these types of challenges. |  | Are you one of the 95% trapped in a financial prison? | | Most people in free countries still have one master with absolute control over their existence - money. No matter how much we like to pretend it doesn't matter, our financial situation has a powerful hold over us. |  | What to do about things that are out of your control | | Despite what some would have us believe, there are large numbers of things that affect us in this life that are completely out of our control. What natural abilities we're born with, which family we're born into, what happens with the economy in our country and of course death are all things we're pretty much completely powerless over. |  | Relationships are what really matter in life | | I've experienced a lot of stuff in my time. I'm been a poor student and a rich professional. I've lived in Europe, Asia, North America and Australia. I've read a ton of books, seen thousands of movies, and tried out just about every amusement known to man. | | It's okay to be afraid | | We all get scared sometimes. It's just part of us to feel a little fear from time to time. Even silly things that we feel adults shouldn't be afraid of sometimes just get us all anxious. This is perfectly normal. |  | Improvement usually requires suffering | | We all want to be better people. We want to be smarter, wiser, stronger and more beautiful. Look at any magazine rack in any supermarket, and you'll see that self-improvement is on a lot of people's minds. | | How to improve your imagination and creativity | | There are all sorts of strategies that are talked about for improving your imagination. Free-form flowing, lateral thinking and "thinking outside the box" whatever the heck that means. | | Develop additional sources of income | | I was once doing a contract for one of the largest investment banks in the world, when something horrible happened. I'd been there a few months and had got to know a few of the other people. In general, they were nice, dedicated, hardworking people. Many of them had mortgages, families and other commitments. | | Life is serious, but it's also ridiculous | | We're all stuck in the middle of this life, and are forced to take it very seriously. If we don't, reality will soon show us the folly of doing so. But take a minute sometimes to take a step back from the day-to-day battles and look at just how ridiculous it all is. If we weren't stuck right smack-bang in the middle of it all, human existence would seem so absurd as to be outrageous.
|
New articles are being added all the time, so make sure you bookmark Paul's Tips and come back.
|
|