Dear Readers,
Recently I had a powerful discussion with one of my readers that intrigued me : To what degree are our lives preordained, and to what degree does free will enter into the equation?
Please share with me your thoughts on this matter.
Love,
Lolly
Lolly Daskal is one of the most sought-after executive leadership coaches in the world.
Her extensive cross-cultural expertise spans 14 countries, six languages and hundreds
of companies. As founder and CEO of Lead From Within, her proprietary leadership
program is engineered to be a catalyst for leaders who want to enhance performance
and make a meaningful difference in their companies, their lives, and the world.
Of Lolly’s many awards and accolades, Lolly was designated a Top-50 Leadership and Management Expert by Inc. magazine. Huffington Post honored Lolly with the title of The Most Inspiring Woman in the World. Her writing has appeared in HBR, Inc.com, Fast Company (Ask The Expert), Huffington Post, and Psychology Today, and others. Her newest book, The Leadership Gap: What Gets Between You and Your Greatness has become a national bestseller.
Of Lolly’s many awards and accolades, Lolly was designated a Top-50 Leadership and Management Expert by Inc. magazine. Huffington Post honored Lolly with the title of The Most Inspiring Woman in the World. Her writing has appeared in HBR, Inc.com, Fast Company (Ask The Expert), Huffington Post, and Psychology Today, and others. Her newest book, The Leadership Gap: What Gets Between You and Your Greatness has become a national bestseller.
Michael Gentile
19. Dec, 2009
When someone says preordained I hear someone saying all actions are irrelevant. Believing actions mean nothing in determining life’s outcome, one would have to believe that the experiences we encounter are meaningless, giving us nothing to learn from and build upon.
What is it that makes us pick a course of action, drive down a certain street, read a new book or simply sit still and wait for something to happen? Actions do not create preordained results, if so practice would be immaterial to improving one’s results. Free Will is in itself a preordained gift from God.
Herrin
21. Dec, 2009
All the main things we either control or can learn to have some kind of influence over at the very least:
1. What we focus on
2. What things mean
3. What we do
Then there are the choices we make as to how to deal with things that “happen” to us.
Yes there is the beautiful unknown and we should always leave room for that as well so we can be fluid and happy but we should have no illusions as to the power of our choices.
The Buddha said, “With our thoughts we create the world”
This is our inner world, but often it does not reflect or even refer to the environment outside. Maybe this is why we have fallen so far in our stewardship of the Planet.
Health and Happiness! 🙂
Thomas Waterhouse
21. Dec, 2009
Hello Lolly! I don’t think that it’s a dichotomy of free will or fate. I believe that “All is going the way of Love” and we’re immersed in a process of perfect collaboration where the Love on the inner “conspires” with the Love on the outer to bring us all to our highest possible expression. Sometimes it just takes a while but in the end, Love prevails.
LunaJune
21. Dec, 2009
Fate..I don’t think is something that we have no control over. I will meet someone and instantly feel fate had a hand in our meeting..that something we do together needed to be done to allow a change to happen. I believe that we write our lives daily, out thoughts and hopes and dreams shape our day thus affect our tomorrows. Did I know a year ago when I came to twitter how much it would affect my day to day life? NO! i came looking for a specific person… but alas he rarely comes here but it brought me here enough and the more I come here the more I learn about myself and where I am go.. so I think fate did push me here, the wonderful people , you included, that I have met and interacted with this year is mindboggling and fills me with such love and inspiration daily
John LaRosa
21. Dec, 2009
Great topic, Lolly!
We create our own outcomes via our thoughts, goals, habits and actions. For better or worse, things don’t always work out exactly as planned, but that’s OK. Believing in ourselves and our “mission”, having a passion for love and life, and acting daily with purpose and integrity provide the foundation we need to handle all of life’s “curveballs”. If things go wrong, as they often will, we shouldn’t blame “fate”. We should learn, adapt and move forward with a new sense of purpose and a stronger will to succeed.