Hard work or Fate?

     Life is a journey. Just like a pilot needs to know the route to the assigned place, one too needs to follow a philosophy in life to reach his/her goals. The options being surrendering to fate or working hard, both of them contradict each other. With the former being of divine intervention and the latter having work as priority, one becomes bewildered when asked to choose between the two.

      

     Fate tells us that everything in this Universe is pre-written by the Creator and all we have to do is to wait and watch what happens to us. It seems to have a reason why the inept guy got the job or why Kevin got an F in his report card even though he sat next to the brightest student in the class during the exams.
Fatalism seems to answer each of our events in our lives either by saying “It’s written in your fate” or “it isn’t”.

    

       To some, work theory seems to be a more logical one. Work theory suggests that Man is what he does. If he is lethargic, he’ll never succeed in life and if he is hard working, he surely will reach his goals in life. Hard work seems to answer each success in our life as “you’ve finally got the fruit of your hard work” and failure as “you didn’t work hard enough”.

      

      So, the million dollar (just joking. You don’t need to give me a million dollars to read on, I surely will be much elated if you do) question is: which philosophy should one follow? After lots of research on the subject, I’ve finally found out the answer –

When the Creator wrote Man’s fate, He fixed only a few things as permanent, including birth, death and the task(s) he has to complete on Earth. While he cannot reject his birth and death, Man can choose either to ignore his Personal Legend ( as Paulo Coelho describes,” It is the path that God chose for you here on Earth”) or follow it. If he chooses to abandon it, he’ll have no meaning in his life and will become a wander in life. But if he is determined to follow the path, he becomes an instrument of the Creator and benefits the society.

      

      Fatalism and work theory are not completely different philosophies, but are the two parts of the Original Philosophy of Life. The Creator had entrusted this truth to Adam and Eve and obliged them to enlighten their children with the same. But over the years, their descendants began to establish different religious institutions and divided the Original Philosophy of Life into two parts.

      

     Truth always reveals itself, sooner or later. So did the Original Philosophy of Life. That’s why it is talked of in the Holy Quran and the Bible. Ending this debate on fatalism and work theory, one can say that both the former and later are the pieces of a greater theory, the Original Philosophy of Life.

Suggested Reading:

Lessons from Everyday

The Meaning of Life