A Victory or a Learning Experience
Think Tank #22
If everything happens for a reason, are some people destined to fail?
There is an inner guiding voice that directs everything I do. When I listen to the voice, things go well for me. When I ignore the voice, things go poorly, and I am less happy. I know this to be true. Yet sometimes, I ignore the voice anyway.
If ‘everything happens for a reason,’ shouldn’t I listen to it? That’s what will produce the best outcome, after all.
Unless ‘everything happens for a reason’ means that sometimes suffering is necessary in the short-term, in order for that desired future outcome to be realized.
Unless ‘everything happens for a reason’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘everything happens in the way that is best for me,’ and the world does not, in fact, revolve around me, and maybe my poor decision was necessary for something important to happen somewhere else.
After all, ‘everything happens for a reason’ doesn’t mean the world is perfect, does it?
But how does personal responsibility fall into all of this? If ‘everything happens for a reason,’ then isn’t the reason premeditated? Doesn’t this mean that I don’t really have a choice at all, that everything has been spelled out already and I’m just following orders?
Well, not necessarily.
‘Everything happens for a reason’ is kind of just one of those things people say, isn’t it? It doesn’t really have any meaning, when you try to pick it apart. What does this ‘reason’ entail? It could be anything. It’s as obvious and meaningless a statement as “after everything that happens something else happens.” Of course it does.
But it’s comforting. And it’s true. If you like your life at all, if you’re grateful for the people in it, then you should thank your lucky stars for everything that came before to make this moment possible. Even more than this—if you believe in growth and the evolution of your soul, then every moment is either a victory or a learning experience.
Does this mean that if you deliberately make a shitty choice you should shrug your shoulders and say ‘oh well, there must have been some reason why I did that’? Probably not, I’d assume. But who knows? Maybe that lapse in judgment was necessary for you to learn to be more responsible in the future. After all, everything happens for a reason, doesn’t it?