World, Writing, Wealth discussion

I'd say that we have some control over what direction our lives take. We make decisions that have positive or negative consequences. If you had to say, what percentage of your life is under your control, and what percentage is not? I'd say that 40% is in my control and 60% isn't. What do you think? Maybe control is an illusion?

One can't control the events coming at him/her or occurring nearby, but he/she should have a better control of his/her choices/reaction to them. Following some path or pre-determined course of action may be challenging in the face of opposing events, but still something possible. In extreme cases, even the immediate future may be uncertain. I'm a believer in using/trying opportunities (maybe because I'm not that good in creating them myself) that each of us has along his/her life. The control is relative and its degree/percentage depend of personal traits - some just go with the flow, while others are more determined to set their own course, but I think it's more than just an illusion..

I agree in general with Nik. In addition, I think everybody gets a certain amount of luck thrown at them - good or bad - and some people get more of one. You cannot do much about the really bad (like a friend of mine who, at age about twelve, developed some disease where his skeleton started to disintegrate) but in general I think your success depends on making what you can of the good luck, annealing as best you can with the bad.

I've always thought about how a small, seemingly unimportant decision can change the course of a life. Deciding to take a later flight, and the original flight crashes. Deciding to take a different route, and there's a pile-up on your usual route. Deciding to dive into a creek where you've been dozens of times, and hitting a sunken tree. This happened to a friend's son, who was paralyzed. It all seems so random.