Anna Scheucher
You’ve probably heard the saying “Everything happens for a reason”.
It’s a popular saying because it suggests that everything that happens to us is for our ultimate good.
But could that be a bad way of thinking?
We’ll take a look at 12 good reasons why you should give up on fatalism and start believing in yourself and your surroundings again.
What is fatalism?
Let’s start this article out by being on the same page about the definition of fatalism.
After all, I can’t really tell you why you should give up on something when we’re not clear about what that thing actually is, right?
Fatalism is the belief that everything is predetermined and can’t be changed.
According to this belief, no matter what you will do in life, it’s already decided and you can’t do anything about it.
Now, I know it’s impossible to convince someone that they should stop believing in fatalism, so I guess the best we can do is give you a few good reasons to start thinking for yourself:
12 reasons why you should give up on fatalism
1) You have free will
Fatalism suggests that your decisions don’t matter because they were already predetermined.
But if you think about it, this is not true. You have free will, so you can make your own decisions and choose your own fate.
Just because you decide to do something doesn’t mean it was going to happen anyway, no matter what you decided.
Additionally, if you try to be a fatalist, it could make life much more difficult for yourself than it needs to be.
By believing in the idea that everything has been predetermined for you, then there is nothing more you should be doing in your life.
So why not just sit back and let things happen?
But what if the things that are happening aren’t good? What if they’re bad?
Then by not doing anything about them, those bad things might keep happening over and over again.
If you want to break that cycle of bad things happening, then give up on fatalism.
You can’t really prove or disprove fatalism, I mean, nobody really knows if what you decide in your day to day has been predetermined or not.
However, not believing in fatalism and therefore believing in free will does one thing: it changes your mindset to one where you have more responsibility.
Now, whether that was predetermined or not, it’s always good to take ownership of your life, it will get you much further!
That brings me to my next point:
2) You can change your life
It’s time to stop thinking that nothing can change your life.
If you’re feeling stuck and things aren’t going the way you wanted them to, it’s simply because you haven’t taken the necessary steps to make those changes happen for yourself.
But the good news is that anything that seems difficult in the beginning becomes easier with practice.
So give up on fatalism, and start believing in yourself a little more. There are plenty of opportunities waiting for you out there, so go get them!
The mere fact that you can change your life at any given second is already reason enough to put fatalism on the backburner.
And why wouldn’t you want to believe that?
I mean, just think about it: when you believe in fatalism, your motivation to change your life is immediately narrowed down because a part of you believes that you can’t make a difference, anyway.
Now: shifting your mindset and actually changing your life will make you happier in the long run!
How can you change your life?
Well, anyway you want! You can:
- pursue a career
- change jobs
- eat healthier
- work out more
- start a family
- break up with your partner
- get into a new relationship
- cut your hair
All these things can be decided in the blink of an eye, and you could change the trajectory of your life at any given moment.
Doesn’t that speak against fatalism?
3) Fatalism prevents you from finding your purpose
If you always wait around for fate to take over, you might be missing out on the chance to find your purpose because you aren’t taking action.
When it comes to experiencing peace from fatalism, it could be that you’re not living your life aligned with a deeper sense of purpose.
The consequences of not finding your purpose in life include a general sense of frustration, listlessness, dissatisfaction, and a sense of not being connected with your inner self.
It’s difficult to live a happy life when you’re not feeling in sync.
I learned a new way to discover my purpose after watching Ideapod co-founder Justin Brown’s video on the hidden trap of improving yourself.
He explains that most people misunderstand how to find their purpose, using visualization and other self-help techniques.
However, visualization isn’t the best way to find your purpose. Instead, there’s a new way to do it which Justin Brown learned from spending time with a shaman in Brazil.
After watching the video, I discovered my purpose in life and it dissolved my feelings of frustration and dissatisfaction.
This helped me to give up on fatalism and take finding my purpose into my own hands!
4) You’re probably overthinking
A lot of the trouble we get ourselves into is due to overthinking.
The idea that everything happens for a reason can be dangerous because it’s easy to start thinking about events that have happened in your life and question why they were allowed to happen.
You might think, “I shouldn’t have been fired from my job, this had to happen for a reason! I must be meant for something more”.
But when you take this attitude toward your past, you stop living in the present and focus on your future.
You can spend hours upon hours dwelling on the past and wishing things would have turned out differently, or wondering what good they will do in the future.
This attitude has been proven time and time again to cause depression and anxiety which will affect your happiness levels.
So, stop overthinking, accept reality for what it is and make the most of it!
Sure, you might not know why exactly something happened, but without knowing whether or not it was supposed to happen you have the motivation to actually improve your situation now.
That brings me to my next point:
5) If you’re unhappy, you can change it
A fatalistic attitude is one of the most self-defeating things you can do.
It stops you from taking responsibility for your own happiness and creates an excuse for why you might feel unhappy with your life.
Do you think everything is meant to be?
If so, then what’s the point of going after something if it doesn’t have a positive outcome?
The truth is that anything worth having or achieving takes hard work and effort.
If you want to be happy, that means you need to put in the work to make yourself happy.
If you don’t like where your life is going, then change it! It doesn’t happen by chance.
Fatalism holds you back from making yourself happy because you will settle for what your life currently is, believing it’s “meant to be”.
But once you drop fatalism, you will realize that you can change how happy you are!
You can change your situation and make yourself happy.
If you’re not happy, you can change it!
6) You don’t have to be a victim
Do you want to know the biggest danger of fatalism? It encourages victimhood.
Victimhood is the idea that you are a victim of outside forces.
The world is out to get you, life is unfair and your fate is not in your hands.
If you let this mentality sink into your subconscious, it will lead to self-sabotage and self-judgment which will eventually lead to a vastly unhappier life.
You become a slave to what other people think of you and have no control over your own life.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned throughout my life, it’s that there’s always a way out of any situation, even if it requires hard work and effort.
And the most important thing about changing yourself for the better is making sure you do it with intention.
When you let go of fatalism, you also let go of victimhood.
Sure, it’s uncomfortable taking responsibility for how your life is going, but guess what?
That’s the only thing that will actually inspire change!
If you aren’t happy with how your life is right now, it’s up to you to change it. And if you don’t, you can’t keep playing the victim and blaming others for your misfortunes.
The truth is, you are not a victim, and you can achieve anything you set your mind to.
7) There’s always hope
There are always reasons to be hopeful.
No matter what happens or how bad a situation seems, there’s always hope.
When you give up on the idea that everything is predetermined, you’ll start to see the opportunities that are right in front of you.
You might believe it would have been better if you had been born into a different family. Or you think you’re just meant to fail at a certain business venture.
But as time passes, these things will change and there will be new opportunities for growth that you can take advantage of.
Giving up on fatalism means reclaiming hope.
Hope, that the future actually lies in your own hands!
You never know what could happen when you stop believing everything is predetermined and start living life from moment to moment instead.
8) You’re probably making your situation worse by not doing anything about it
One of the worst feelings in the world is feeling stuck.
You’ve probably had this type of feeling before.
It often starts when you realize that you’re going nowhere in life and feel like you have no control over your life.
In this state, it’s easy to think that everything happens for a reason because it takes the blame off of you.
But the truth is, if you don’t do anything about your situation, things will only get worse for you.
Fatalism won’t make your life any better because it leaves you feeling helpless and without options.
It might just be easier to accept what has happened to you and move on with your life but by doing so, you won’t learn from your mistakes and live a fulfilling life.
Instead, try to take an active role in understanding how to change your current situation or accept that sometimes things don’t happen for a reason at all.
Think about it: the longer you don’t do anything about your situation because you believe it’s meant to be, the worse it will get!
So give up on fatalism sooner rather than later and take life into your own hands!
9) It can be a toxic habit
Fatalism at its worst can actually be quite a toxic habit, so giving up on it will do you some good.
But unfortunately, modern spirituality makes toxic habits everything but rare.
When it comes to your personal spiritual journey, which toxic habits have you unknowingly picked up?
Is it the need to be positive all the time? Is it a sense of superiority over those who lack spiritual awareness?
Even well-meaning gurus and experts can get it wrong.
The result is that you end up achieving the opposite of what you’re searching for. You do more to harm yourself than to heal.
You may even hurt those around you.
In this eye-opening video, the shaman Rudá Iandé explains how so many of us fall into the toxic spirituality trap.
He himself went through a similar experience with fatalism at the start of his journey.
As he mentions in the video, spirituality should be about empowering yourself.
Not suppressing emotions, not letting fate decide your life, but forming a pure connection with who you are at your core.
If this is what you’d like to achieve, click here to watch the free video.
Even if you’re well into your spiritual journey, it’s never too late to unlearn the myths you’ve bought for truth!
10) You give your power away when you believe in fatalism
Believing in fatalism is believing that you have no power over your future.
There are many things that people can’t control, but they do have the power to choose how they react to what happens in life.
To believe in fate is to say that things will happen regardless of what we do and there’s nothing we can do about it.
That’s an awful way of thinking because it means that you give your power away to fate and anything else out of your control.
By taking back control and believing in yourself, you’re putting more faith in the idea that you can shape your future.
That’s what you want to be doing!
Remember, whatever you put your focus on, grows. So if you focus on your ability to change your future, you will be able to do it with ease!
Giving your power away is the last thing you want to be doing.
Think about it: there are already so many things we can’t control, so why not take ownership of the one thing you can control, which is yourself and how you will shape your future?
That brings me to my next point:
11) You can create your own future
The idea that everything happens for a reason is pretty limiting.
It’s like saying you can’t do anything about your future because it’s already been decided.
But the truth is, no matter what has happened to you in the past, you still have a say in what will happen to you in the future.
If you want to change your life and make it better, fatalism won’t help you.
You need to believe in yourself and the things around you if you want to create your own future.
And who doesn’t want to do that?
I, for one, want to have a say in what my future will look like. Don’t you?
Well, then it’s time to drop fatalism once and for all and work on creating the future you’re happy to live in.
12) You can still be grateful for past events, even if you don’t believe in fatalism
It’s hard to deny that there are a few events in life that have turned out positively for us.
And the best part?
You can still be grateful for past events, even if you don’t believe in fatalism!
If you’re trying to find the good in your life and the good in other people’s lives, then giving up on fatalism will allow you to do this.
Let me explain how I like to see things:
I believe that we are 100% in control of how we react to things and how we shape our future.
Of course, there are events in the past that weren’t always fortunate at the time being.
What I like to believe is that everything that happened in the past, happened in order to get us exactly where we are right now, and that’s where we need to be.
However, we still have complete control over what we do now and how we choose to proceed in life!
This unites two philosophical concepts: for one, it’s giving up on fatalism and the idea that everything is predetermined, but on the other side, it’s the concept of “amor fati”, which means “lover of one’s fate”.
It basically means that whatever has happened in the past was necessary and you wouldn’t want to change anything about it because it brought you to who you are today.
Simply put, it’s the best of both worlds: complete acceptance of what happened, seeing the valuable lessons of the past, while still being 100% accountable for the future and how you choose to shape it.
Should you give up on fatalism?
If you ask me, the answer is yes.
Of course, you can choose to believe whatever you want, but in my opinion, giving up on fatalism gives you back the necessary power and motivation to actively change your life.
You can still believe in fate to some extent, just don’t find comfort in the fact that everything is predetermined and no matter what you do (or don’t do), it will turn out okay.
The reality is, that you are the creator of your life, and if you choose to let fate take over your future, not much will change.
If you want a better life, make it happen!
