Can you control your destiny?

Question

I'm writing an essay for english, is destiny a force that you can control?

i'm argueing that my character was the only one in the play that could not control her own destiny b/c she was under a spell

Answer 1

no, destiny is the future that is meant to be

Answer 2

Control Your Destiny

Answer 3

Everyone controls his or her destiny to some degree. Due to factors we cannot control, the process we do control may be changed or even terminated prior to our desire to continue on the chosen path. It is that path that we choose that is the part we control. Here is an example: a man or woman lives a good clean drug/alcohol/crime-free life and is a strong benefactor to his or her community. At the age of 30 years old, this person is married with a family of 2 children and has a good income and leads an honest life, providing for the family and has never broken the law or been cruel to anyone. This person gets arrested for the murder of a close family member (it doesn't matter who). Due to the person's closeness to the deceased indivdual, it is impossible to conclude the killer was anyone else. All of the evidence points this person, but he or she is innocent. The person is convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Only our subject knows for a fact he or she is innocent, and the appeal process looks bleak.
If our subject becomes angry, I would too. If he or she feels cheated, I would too. Injust...yes! But how is one to continue life in prison as an innocent person? Be a mentor for those whose life you may change...be benevolent and try to be the best person you can even under these horrible circumstances? I would suggest this person still controls their destiny to a degree. The only time you don't (in general) is if your life has been terminated early. And that's all I got to say about that!

Answer 4

neither. Destiny is simply one Path that we can either choose to follow or not. My destiny is as a writer. But I can choose to never pick up a pen again. However, knowing what my destiny is, I now know that my life would be far more fulfilled if I follow it. But no, at every step, I have free will and the ability to choose either right or wrong, the Path of Destiny or another Path.

Answer 5

I see fate and destiny as the same thing, so just ignore the fact that I say 'fate' a lot.


We all make our own choices, not fate. However, fate does 'decide' what the outcomes of those actions will be. For each choice, there is a consequence, and, though it may seem silly, for each way we make a choice, there is also a consequence. For example, if you decide to help a homeless person, there is a consequence to it. But the spirit in which you help that person will affect the consequence.

Helping them while cursing them for letting their lives turn out the way they did leads to one offshoot of the main consequence, while offering kindness and comfort leads to another. However, helping them in kindness may not lead to kindness in return, just like helping them but being bitter or angry won't necessarily lead to bitterness or anger in return. The effect, in other words, does not always seem to fit the cause.

Before we make each decision, the outcome is already spun, and the new choices after that consequence are already decided, and the hundreds of consequences of the next choice are already decided, and so on and so on. These choices and consequences don't affect only us, of course. Everything is intertwined together, and depending on what choices are made, new ones after those are combined with the effects of all the other choices already made.


Like I said, complicated. But in essence, yes and no. You control your destiny (or fate) by making choices. But fate has already decided what the result of each available choice will be.

An example: Your boss calls you in his office to fire you. You have any number of choices available. A couple of common choices: accept it and slink away; get angry; or fight for your job.

Fate knows that those choices are available to you, so it has decided what the outcome will be. The outcomes in order: you spend months looking for a new job and eventually go bankrupt; you end up hitting your boss and being charged with assault; your boss refuses to give you your old job back but does give you another chance by transferring you to a different part of the company.

That is a very simplified version, of course. As I said, the way in which you make a choice also effects the outcome.


I've said way too much. But it's not a simple question, so it can't have a simple answer, can it? Anyway, that's how I believe it works.

Answer 6

no destiny isn't a force it can be changed its all about choices, and making the right ones. eg if a physic told you something bad was going to happen, to change your destiny all you would have to do is handle the choices in life with a little more care, furthermore having control over your live and therefore over destiny.

Answer 7

I don't believe you can control your destiny. I mean say you decided that you don't believe in destiny. You decide that you're going to make you own future. How do you know that it's not in your destiny to decide that you don't believe in destiny? And how do you know everything you decide to do on your own isn't really what was meant to happen in your destiny? There's no escaping it!!! I mean writing your own destiny is like trying to write a book that's already been written.

Answer 8

Yes, with the right attitude, there is lot of scope for controlling the destiny.. for example, when rivers flood, villages get submerged and perish ......for a long time it continues thus... till somebody wakes up and decides to control this destiny by building a huge dam !

Answer 9

I think destiny is something that you either believe in or not. If you do not believe in destiny, then yes you can control your future. If you do believe in destiny, I think that every conscious decision you make contributes to your destination.

Answer 10

No, is the short answer. But this doesn't mean we are powerless. It's more like surfing, or sailing, or kayaking a river. These "larger than me" forces, the ocean, the wind, the river, are like destinies: they have their own way, regardless of what we might want. We have to learn how they move so that we can respond to them and keep ourselves out of the water. If we fall in, it's not really a problem, but a learning opportunity. When we understand why we fall, we don't need to any more.

Answer 11

I completely agree with leo9hu. We do not control our destiny 100%. Yes, we have choices and we are all capable of choosing for ourselves, but in the long run, there is an ultimate plan.