Is Our Fate Really Set in Stone?
Is our fate already decided?
I bet you’ve asked yourself this at some point.
Usually when things aren’t going your way.
When you keep failing no matter how hard you try.
When it feels like nothing ever changes.
From a scientific standpoint, the future is unpredictable.
We can talk about probabilities based on past data,
but nobody actually knows what’s coming next.
Some people rely on fortune tellers or horoscopes.
Personally, I’d say don’t lean on fate. Just live your life on your own terms.
This post is just me sorting out my thoughts on the whole destiny thing.
“That’s Just Your Fate”
You know that person. There’s always one.
That’s your fate.
You were born this way.
Funny how that phrase just shuts everything down.
No more discussion, no more thinking needed.
I guess it can feel comforting in a weird way.
But honestly? I never really liked hearing it.
It didn’t match my experience or how I wanted to live.
Felt like someone was cutting off possibilities before I even had a chance.
I always thought: “Predetermined? Come on. Isn’t fortune telling basically just statistics anyway? And not even the verifiable kind.”
Lot of people around me believe in horoscopes or palm readings.
They say it’s reassuring to hear “be careful this month” or “good things are coming.”
I get the psychology behind it.
Humans struggle with uncertainty.
That’s just how we’re wired.
But here’s what I think.
Maybe if your own internal compass was stronger,
you wouldn’t need someone else to interpret your life for you.
Letting fate or fortune tellers explain your present and dictate your future?
That might just be a way to avoid thinking too hard.
Infinite Possibilities
I remember watching a science video a few years back.
Can’t recall exactly which one.
It was about pendulums.
A simple pendulum is easy to calculate.
But add just one more joint and things get crazy complicated.
Tiny differences in starting conditions lead to completley different outcomes over time. They call this chaos theory.
What struck me was how much this resembles real life.
Reality is way more complex than a pendulum. One person’s life is shaped by personality, environment, relationships, coincidences, choices - all tangled up together.
Change just one decision and you might be living a totaly different life right now.
Quantum mechanics tells us we can’t even pin down the exact position of a single particle.
We can only describe it in probabilities.
At this point, thinking we can predict the future precisely seems like human arrogance more than anything.
How the Brain Works
There’s another thing that stuck with me.
An experiment showed that when you stimulate certain parts of the brain,
a person raises their arm before they consciously decide to.
Then when you ask why they did it, they come up with a reason.
“I just felt like it.”
The brain already acted. Consciousness just adds the explanation afterwards.
First time I heard this, it creeped me out a bit.
Made me wonder if the choices I thought were mine really were.
But thinking about it more, this doesn’t prove fate exists.
Brain activity itself has noise and randomness.
It’s not a perfectly predictable system.
We explain our reasons after the fact, but the outcomes are still open.
If anything, this made me think the future is even less fixed than I thought.
The Easy Way Out
Now I kind of understand why believing in fate is so appealing.
If everything’s predetermined, you’re off the hook.
Failures, regrets - “it was meant to be” covers it all.
That’s a powerful statement.
It protects you.
Makes the pain hurt less.
I’ll admit, I’ve gone there too.
When life gets overwhelming, blaming fate gives you a moment to breathe.
But stay in that mindset too long and life becomes passive.
You wait instead of choose.
You accept instead of change.
Maybe fatalism is just a very human excuse born from our weakness.
Believe in Yourself
So here’s what I want to say.
The future doesn’t seem to be written.
At least not in any way we can confirm.
That’s kind of scary.
Nobody’s handing you the answers.
But it’s also freeing.
Nothing is locked in.
That means today’s choices actually matter.
One small decision could change tomorrow’s direction.
Stop blaming fate.
Own your choices, even the imperfect ones.
That feels like the most authentic way to live.