Tag Archives: Destiny

Destiny Found in Consistency

I am a big believer in destiny. I have faith that if I really go after something, then I can attain it. It is not a matter of if but a matter of when.

Take writing for example. There are some works that my soul has called me to write, yet they haven’t been completed. I believe they will get done in the future when the time is right (if I am fortunate enough to get to the future). Some may call this a fantasy, that I am living in a fairy tale. And if I was so remiss as to say, “I will get around to it someday,” then those naysayers would be correct. But what they don’t see is what I do daily. These stories are continuously in my mind. And every day, I work toward that end doing the research and honing my writing skills.

A consistent man believes in destiny, a capricious man in chance.

Benjamin Disraeli

There is a chance that these stories will never get written. I could die, become ill, or face some other tragedy. Those are all real possibilities. But writing what my soul has called me to write is no random toss of the dice. Maybe I will get lucky, and they become best sellers inspiring the masses. I hope it does, but that is not my motivation. I write because my soul tells me to write. This, I do every day. If I didn’t, I would not be listening to my heart. In the end, I will have accumulated quite a massive body of work. This I believe is destiny, but it can only be achieved through consistency.

Feature photo by Yannick Pulver on Unsplash

The Aligning of the Stars

The sun moves through the galaxy at about 450,000 miles per hour. It is just one star in a multitude of stars scattered throughout the universe. Imagine all the stars moving at that speed. And yet, to us, they seem to stand still.

All the ancient megaliths that were designed around the sun and stars have been correctly aligned for thousands of years. Like us today, those original builders were going off what seemed to be fixed points during the seasons. If they would have placed their blocks any place they pleased, none of their monuments would have lined up to the sky. Instead, they used mathematical precision and years of study to place those blocks in the exact location they intended.

They used observation and science to calculate the best places to build. They aligned themselves and their monuments to the stars. They did not wait for the stars to move to them.

Modern humans, unlike their ancestors, have developed a different belief system. Rather than going where the stars are optimally located, they want to wait until the stars are aligned to them. They want to believe their time will magically appear without any effort on their part.

Those same people look at anomalies like Gates, Musk, and Bezos and wonder how they got so lucky. And though fortune did play some part, they did not idly stand by and wait for the perfect alignment of the stars before they acted. Like the builders of old, these modern builders put themselves into the best positions possible.

Destiny is not a matter of chance, it’s a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.

William Jennings Bryan

I am a big believer in destiny. We all have it, and we all have the power to capitalize on it. But destiny will not simply come to us. Instead, we must move toward our destinies. The stars will always be aligned. What we must do is prepare ourselves. We must do the work and be where we need to be when we need to be there. We can choose to meet our destiny, or we can watch it go by.

Feature photo by Hello I’m Nik on Unsplash

Follow Your Calling

I am reminded of two lessons from the Bible:

  1. The children of Israel was a nation poised to be an enduring world super-power. They had everything going for them. They had all the chances in the world to maximize their full potential. But over and over again, they let those opportunities go. Instead of keeping their focus on the future and the great rewards that the future had to offer, they chose to indulge in the immediate gratification found in the present. They didn’t have the patience to wait. When the dust settled, their prophecies came true.
  2. Jonah was called by God to do a mission. He ran away. The result: he got swallowed by a big fish and vomited back up on the shore (Jonah 2:11).

From these two stories in the Bible, there is a lesson that can be learned. Whether or not our calling is divine, we should listen to it.

I can’t imagine God put us on this earth to be ordinary. –Lou Holtz

Do you ever wonder what exactly is your purpose on this earth? It is something I think about often. If there is such a thing as a calling, such a thing as destiny, I feel that I have one. I also feel that there has been many times I have run away from that calling. The things I am supposed to do in this life requires practice and time. But recently, I have noticed a disturbing trend in my life. When opportunities present themselves at work, I am quick to to put in for them. These are not promotions, but they are positions that will require more time from me. They will require more time away from the things I believe I should be doing. I can’t think of any legitimate reason why I would be doing this except that I am resisting my calling. This as Steven Pressfield writes over and over again in The War of Art is resistance. Resistance telling me to put it off and wait until later, until I am older. This is procrastination.

Procrastination is a dangerous thing. Ignoring your calling is even more dangerous. Eventually there will come a time when the things you are putting off lose their importance. Run away from your calling long enough, and you may find an inability to hear it again in the future. It would be better to be swallowed by a fish and vomited back up on the shore. But in this day and age, we may not be so fortunate to have God act in such a direct way. Therefore it is imperative that when we hear our calling we don’t ignore it. Our individual destinies are calls to action. If we can keep the end rewards in sight and forego the temptations found in the present, we can go from the ordinary to the extraordinary.