Life Is A Game Of Possibilities; Believe And Eventually You Will Beat The Odds

Life is a complicated matter. In theory, we have the way that we see the world and the way that the world actually is. Sometimes those two versions of the world coincide, sometimes they don't. What is most interesting about human beings is our ability to “plan” into the future.

We don't just see the world as it is now, we see the world as it can be at some point down the road. We take this ability for granted — even though thanks to this ability we were able to place ourselves atop the food chain.

However, we too often trust the infallibility of this ability and come to loath our failure to produce accurate predictions. Put simply: we like to think that we know exactly how circumstances will turn out when, in actuality, all we are capable of is producing relatively accurate probabilities — but nevertheless, only probabilities.

That's the beauty of life: no matter what the probabilities are of any event occurring, as long as there is the tiniest percentage of a chance that things could go the other way, then it is possible that things will go the other way. There are some cases when this fact can work against you, or rather, against your wishes or preferences.

You may have planned a day of outdoor activities and find out that morning that the 10% chance of rain is now 100%. You may find out that the chances of dying in a car accident, roughly 1 out of 12,000, feel much higher when someone you know gets hit by a drunk driver.

In such cases you may feel that having the odds on your side is not enough and that these surprises hurt even more when you know your chances of avoiding these crappy events was much higher than the chances of them actually coming to fruition. You believed that having the odds in your favor guaranteed your success or avoidance of disappointment and misfortune. The word 'misfortune' says it all.

But thanks to the existence of misfortune, we have good fortune. This is the ying and yang that exists in the world. We have the average and then we have the outliers. For each negative outlier out there, there is a positive one somewhere else. Life gives us both the good and the bad and much of the time the outcome is out of our control.

However, finding comfort in the fact that the unexpected can and does happen and can help you overcome whatever difficulties or misfortunes you are currently facing. If a 1% chance of a disaster occurring is enough for it to occur, then a 1% chance of huge success is also enough.

If there is a chance, then there is a possibility — a way to achieve whatever it is you wish to achieve. Understanding that these possibilities, no matter how unlikely, are there and have a chance of developing into existence can help us make it out of the deepest, darkest holes.

There is so much to be said on this topic…I understand that we would all like things to go the way that we plan them to. I understand that there is not much worse than having to face an unlikely, uncommon disaster. I know how it feels to see what you wished for dry up and crumble into dust.

But understanding that there are ways of playing the probabilities to maximize results that lean in your favor and being content with the fact that on occasion fate will work against you, will make your life easier. Sometimes pushing is not the answer.

Sometimes our actions will not produce the results that we wish even though the chances are in our favor. Sometimes we will be faced with suffering. You may one day find it very difficult to get out of your bed, having lost hope. That is when the probabilities swing against you.

There is one thing that each and every person who ever saw his or her “plan” come to fruition has in common: they never lost hope. Hope seems to take different forms throughout the world. What I have come to understand is that having hope requires the acceptance of the existence of some 'good' force. The majority of the world places their hope in an omniscient and omnipresent being.

Personally, I find the idea of the existence of an all-knowing and all-powerful, conscious a bit farfetched. But few will deny the possibility of there being a force out there — in here and everywhere — that somehow connects everything.

This force may very well be our self. It is just as possible that we have the ability to shape our own futures as it is that there is an outside force doing so. Whatever it is that you believe, wherever it is that you can place your hope, know one thing — you must place your hope somewhere in order to accept the possibility of success, no matter how slim the chances of success are.

Believing that you can and will succeed, believing that things can and will go your way, is the way to come out on top. Having faith in yourself and having faith that the world is working with you, and not against you, will only work in your favor. Most of the time that the improbable does not happen is because those involved don't believe in its possible existence.

If you do not believe that something can happen, then you will not be able to pick up on whatever it is that needs to be done in order to nudge its occurrence into tangible existence. Literally anything is possible. This does not mean that anything that can happen, will happen — sometimes things simply aren't in the cards for us.

Having a positive outlook on life, understanding that we have the ability to make the seemingly impossible possible, having hope and accepting the belief that the universe will allow for our happiness and contentment is enough to create the life you want to live.

When life gives you misfortune, accept it and move on. Dwelling on the negative removes all possibility of the positive flowing into your life. Stay in touch with your reality and place hope in your abilities and the world. The world is only as dark as you make it — believe in prosperity and you will eventually beat the odds.

Paul Hudson | Elite. 

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