Did I make the right choice?

A series of conversations and self-reflection has brought me to discuss this today.

You see, a colleague of mine in our very mundane lunch-time conversation shared this little story of her friend, how her exposure and fascination for music and art in her formative years (thanks to her parents!) brought her to become one of the stalwarts of a Canadian film festival years from then, having gone through multiple highs and lows in her life. The moral of that story was this – No matter what choices you make in life, you will land exactly where you are meant to be.

I had saved this story in the back of my head and went about my day. I came back home and a dear friend of mine in our daily banter observed that I hold a very specific view towards life - that my destiny was a consequence of my actions. That is what spiraled my self-reflection and that is exactly why we are here discussing this today.

To explain my viewpoint, I came across this idea, it is more of a question that I have found an answer for myself. And the question is this - How much control do my actions have over my destiny?

Tricky thing! Cause if we believe that it is all fate, then we might resign to our mundane lives and never step out of our comfort zones. On the other end, if we believe that it is all our actions, then we are most vulnerable succumbing to the needless obsession to rectify things that are very well beyond our control.

So where do we draw the line? What does balance then look like?

What I understood, (low-key inspired by the Bible, cause duh!) is that there are a range of choices that we can make in this lifetime that will lead us to the same ultimate destiny we were born to live on this earth. What I mean is that if my destiny is to help people through my career path, then what profession I chose to make it happen is entirely my choice. Sure, fate might nudge us in specific directions by opening unexpected doors, but the choice aka free will ultimately reside within us.

So what does this realization mean for us? 

This knowledge gives us the freedom to make brave choices, to write that cold email, ask for that opportunity, and jumpstart that creative idea in our head, knowing that at the end of the road, regardless of what we choose to do, our fate will take us to our destiny. Now, I don’t mean to say, jump off a cliff cause mann kar raha tha. All I mean is that seemingly daunting day-to-day life choices will not ultimately stray us from our calling or life path. The routes may be many, but the ultimate destination is the same.

So dream those big dreams, make those bold choices, and paint your life all colours and hues cause ultimately…you will reach exactly where you are meant to be. And then, it would have been better to have lived a life with no regrets than a series of ‘what-ifs’ in our dreams.