"The best way to predict your future is to create it" ~ Abraham Lincoln

Its 7.50am in the morning on Saturday and I woke up feeling in a moderately good mood. A lot of things to do today, mainly searching up articles and sources for my PBL...but that aside, its time for another new quote! Today the quote I'll be using to start my morning is by Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States of America. I studied a small bit of American history, mainly in the Prohibition Era, Great Depression and the Second World War, but I do know that Abraham Lincoln was the man who led half of the country during the American Civil War, and was the President who essentially ended Slavery. Thats a really BIG deal, considering the time period.

Anyway, "The best way to predict your future is to create it". There is no true-er quote than this, I believe. I'd just like everyone to take a step back and think: Do you believe in fate? The notion that what will become of you is predestined? 

Some people believe quite strongly in fate, feeling that they're fated for failure all the time. Some people like me, do not believe in fate, and believe that what awaits us in the future depends on what we do now. There is a small difference in mindset between the former and the latter. The former leans somewhat towards what we could call an External Locus of control, while the latter leans towards an Internal Locus of Control. I'm not a psychologist, and according to wikipedia there is a boatload of measurements, indexes and tests that must be done. 

But I do know that if you believe in fate, you believe that some external powerful force controls and dictates the events of our lives, and that whatever you do does not change the final outcome. If I'll be permitted to say, this is not a good attitude to have. For one, this mindset basically predisposes us to accept whatever comes our way, and to not try to fix anything or work to improve because we feel that we cannot affect the outcome. 

But if you believe that what you do, and how you react to what life throws at you determines the  events and path of your life, then everything changes. Suddenly every time something happens that is good, we can look into and see what we did right so that you can do it again if it ever happens. If we encounter failure or something bad, we can look into it and see what we did wrong, so that we won't ever do it again. When life throws a serious punch to the face, we have the mindset that there is something we can do to help ourselves.

And that is pretty much the core of this quote. The belief that in order to help ourselves, we have to believe that we can control our own lives. By not believing that we aren't in control of our own lives, we are ceding control to whatever happens to happen to us. By saying that we are responsible for all the actions and events of our lives, we gain the power to shape our own future. But by saying that we are not responsible for the actions and events of our lives, that some outside force is in control, we are made powerless.

It is a simple concept, one oft repeated in many quotes and self-help books. Suffice to say, this will not be the last time we touch on this subject. It has many faces, and permeates our lives subtly in whatever we do. But I hope that it helps to be aware of it now. And once again, for anyone who happens to read this, your opinions and comments would be much appreciated.

~Arthur