by Ms. C. Jones

Created on: December 25, 2008   Last Updated: January 04, 2009

In our life time we very often ponder what the differences are between fate and destiny. Why is that some of us are fortunate to live long and wonderful lives while others die young? Why are some people so wealthy and others destitute and penniless? Some people believe it is karma that determines our destiny in this life. What we did in our previous life, determines the kind of life we will live now. Many people believe our fate and destiny are the same. This is not at all true. Destiny and fate are however, closely entwined.

Fate is what happens to us at the end of our lives. Our fate is that final moment when we take our last breath. For some their fate will be to die in an act of violence, in a car crash, from cancer or asleep in bed. Can we change our fate? The answer is "no". Your fate is simply that final moment in your life; when your life ends. But then there is destiny. Can we control our destiny? The answer is both "yes" and "no". Destiny is the journey we take in our lives and fate is that final moment when the journey ends.

We cannot change certain things in our lives, such as the family we are born to or our genetic predisposition. Our genetics will determine a large part of who we are. Our environment and life experience adds to the genetic factors already biologically programmed into us. These things we cannot change and we are indeed deeply affected by our experiences and genetics.

Let's take a moment to reflect about what makes humans so different from other primates and wild animals. Animals are primarily driven by purely biological factors. The need to survive and the urge to propagate. Humans received the evolutionary gift of "free will." A highly developed frontal lobe and higher processing in the cortex gave us "free will." Free will allows us to make our own decisions and choices in life.

How we are raised, life experience, and free will, help us to determine our destiny. Our destiny is determined by many different factors, such as motivation and choices we make in our lives and "acts of god." If you are motivated to become a doctor because someone close to you has an illness, this becomes part of your destiny. Because a life experience (someone you cared for) affected you, you chose to make it part of your destiny by becoming a doctor.

We must make decisions every day. Sometimes, those decisions can be fatal. If you choose to run a red light and are killed by an oncoming vehicle, you determined your own destiny by making the wrong choice. That is when your destiny became your "fate." The fact of the matter is that you and you alone control the direction that your life will take. If you want to travel with world, then you work hard to pay for all of the trips and control your destiny by the choices you make. There are extraneous variables that are beyond our control that do affect our destiny and fate. A car accident, an earthquake, a shooting, and illness are a few examples of things that we have no control over. These extraneous variable can change our destiny and if we are fortunate enough to survive; reshape our destiny.

It is great to imagine what our destiny is going to be in life. Are we destined for great things? Our fate however, is something that we would all like to push to the back of our minds, at least until that fateful day.

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