Executive Coaching
by Caroline M. Spira, MPA, CEC
Fate: (1) the development of events beyond a person’s control, regarded as determined by a supernatural power; (2) the course of someone’s life, or the outcome of a particular situation for someone or something, seen as beyond their control
Not everyone wholeheartedly prescribes to the notion fate – to the idea that everything is pre-ordained somehow. Some do, some don’t. It can be a let-down to those who want to achieve more than what was just “meant to be”.
Tempting fate, now that’s more like it! Once in a while, it’s a good idea to try it out for size, just to see what might happen. And because some tend invariably also fit to the notion that “nothing happens, then nothing happens, then everything happens”, it makes this little push on the pre-ordained order of things that much more interesting.
Tempting fate fills that insatiable appetite to live in a world of exploration, discovery and perpetual curiosity. It screams: “I’m not letting choices be made for me!”
Think of twisting the hand of fate towards a positive outcome as you do a stretch goal. Proverbially stretching the rubber band of what should be serendipitous and “just the way it was meant to be”, into something a little further, a little higher, a little faster. How about stretching a positive into an even greater positive?
Yes, it may be fate that had one sitting in a coffee shop reading a good book instead of sitting by the phone for a much anticipated call. You know the one. The kind of call that only comes because you are not there to take it, as opposed to the countless other times you would have been right there to pick it up on the first ring. Fate? Murphy’s law? Something other befitting this opposition to perfect timing?
Waiting on fate to do all the work is precisely like having a goal that is achievable without a challenge. Or better yet, writing an item you have already done on your to-do list just so you know for certain you’ll be able to scratch that one off!
If it’s a given from the get-go, in the end, was anything new experienced? What else have you missed while patiently sitting and waiting? What other equally wonderful things passed you by unnoticed? Unexplored?
Here is another way to think of it: sitting by and letting fate take its course means that one removes themselves from the control panel of life. There is so little we truly control. Why not push forward and give fate a run for its money? It can give you a healthy dose of adrenaline and open so many new doors to opportunities.
Tempting fate in a positive way can also fill you with a sense of accomplishment and bring on rewards of its own.
Before leaping off a tall building to see if fate would have you reach the other side (this is so the wrong kind of fate tempting!), think about all the positive things you know you are fated to achieve. Then think about how you can stretch yourself to achieve these goals with greater passion, enthusiasm and perhaps a little bit of spirit of adventure.
If you are a fanatic believer of in fate then you know that stretching yourself is what you were fated to do anyway! If you don’t prescribe to the idea that everything is pre-disposed to happen, then what’s stopping you from forging ahead?
Go ahead – give yourself a kick in the fate pants. If nothing happens then nothing happens, then everything happens, tell fate you’d rather take everything.
Now isn’t that a great way to bust open the doors of possibility?