What I Learned from Lao Tze About Destiny

What I Learned from Lao Tze about Destiny

“Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.”  ~ Lao-Tze

For more than 2,000 years, the wisest people have taught us that our thoughts create things. Those things become our reality. Our reality becomes our everyday destiny. On one hand, it is true we are taught to believe in

fairy tales and nursery rhymes as children. Those tales always seem to imply that a hero will save the day for us. However, when we become adults, we have a choice to create our own reality by taking our destiny into our own minds, instead of waiting for the fairy tale to come true. 

When we claim a puppeteer is controlling our fate, it never occurs to us that we are the puppeteers. We blame our parents for not hugging us enough. We blame circumstances and the economy. We blame the government for its policies. We blame the media for explicit sex and violence. And without question, each generation blames the succeeding generation for chaos the world faces.

Yet, when you look closer at Lao Tze’s quote, it is the individual’s thought that has created the human experience and destiny. Each generation is born into the proceeding generation’s thoughts. They embrace those thoughts, as ‘that is the way life is’ and they start their destiny.

It is time the adults listen to their own thoughts and create new conversations. Create thoughts that are correlated with the person you want to be and the world in which you would like to live.

If we commit to creating new conversations, there will be nothing standing in the way of what we desire. As simple as it sounds, it is a matter of thinking about the things you want instead of the things you don’t want or like. When you embrace this philosophy, your environment will also begin to transform, including your parents, the economy, your boss and friends.   

While we have received this message for over 2,000 years, there is no better time than now to heed its warning and create a new destiny. What new thoughts will you start thinking today?

What do you think? I’m open to ideas. Or if you want to write me about a specific topic, let me know.