Do you believe in destiny?
Friday, January 07, 2022

We drive our own destiny; God is our number one cheerleader. I don’t know if this is simply a psychological effect, but there are things that happen in life that seem to be oddly connected. Sometimes it seems almost as if things had to, or were meant to work a certain way. We have the free will to go against it, but if you embrace these truths presented to us, well, you may just find what you were looking for. If you deny it, you’re going to keep going around and around until you learn the lesson or you die, wrote one Quora user on a debate about believing in destiny or not.

Destiny, defined as the hidden power believed to control future events, is one of the most provocative debates. Some people fervently believe in it, some don’t, yet others are just indifferent about it.

Whether destiny is real or not, real estate agent Justas Mukotanyi believes in a powerful nature that he says is imposed on human beings.

Much as humans are given chance to make decisions, to some extent, their lives are predestined, he says.

Shadia Nakyanzi, a customer care attendant, is sure that everything in life happens for reasons that are usually beyond our understanding. 

She, however, notes that in life, we reap what we sow. "What we get in life, is usually a result of our actions.” For this reason, she believes that destiny is somewhat controlled by our own actions.

Character is destiny

Character is destiny, is a quote from the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus, and it resonates such a powerful concept.

Character is what inspires our exclusive perception of life. It is what directs the future. Heraclitus’ quote suggests that destiny is not a determined outside force, but that one’s future, or destiny, is determined by his own inner character.

It is important to believe in a higher power for divine direction, according to Grace Gatesi. 

"Regardless of the fact that people have power to make their choices in life, there are events in life that we have no control over. You can choose to behave a certain way; react a certain way to situations, and this is what influences your decisions, and consequently what happens in life. However, the overall circumstances under which all of that happens, is entirely out of reach for humans,” she explains.

Gatesi adds that she considers that there is a power, call it God or whoever else you believe in, that controls our destiny as humans.

Mukotanyi says focusing on the realities of such notions as destiny, can at some point mislead people in life.

He therefore advises people to focus on their present lives and do the best they can with what they are dealt with.

You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life, the late Steve Jobs, an American inventor, designer and entrepreneur said.