I believe in a thing called Fate

One of my personal attributes is ‘easy going’. There are a number of reasons for this, one of them being that my mum has always been a stress head and I saw the way worry could affect you. More importantly in my opinion is I’m a believer in fate. It’s a great way to deal with any problem or tough decisions that come your way. I live my life by this rule, if something happens, it happens for a reason.

There are many people out there that think the opposite. You control your future and it’s up to you to determine the outcome of your life. Well that is very valid argument. I’m not saying you just have to sit at home and your life will be run for you. I mean if you want a job you need to go looking for jobs. If you want to meet someone you have to put yourself in social situations to meet them. I use the fate argument when I have to choose between different options or scenarios. Instead of spending hours worrying about decisions or things I have done, I just think to myself “It has happened for a reason”.

When I was travelling it was one big lottery who I would meet or which things I did. Depending on which side of the coach I sat on determined which people I got to know and those I didn’t. Make a decision and live by it. There is no point looking back and worrying about the decision you have not made. One example was in a dorm in Sydney in March. I was staying in room 406 in the WakeUp hostel for a week which was great, I had no intention of moving and was set to stay there for another week. However I was forced to change rooms after experiencing some very strange goings on by this weirdo that had just moved into the bed opposite to me. The result of this meant that I had all this hassle changing rooms when I had no prior intention on moving. Instead of being hacked off I just accepted it as a course of action. As a result of the room change I went of to meet someone I hope to stay in contact for rest of my life. Ok, people may argue ‘But what about the people that you would have met if you stayed in the room’. My answer is I don’t know and therefore I don’t worry.

I have found this technique amazingly helpful in job interviews. I go in completely relaxed and without a trace of stress. After all, if they like me they like me, if they don’t, they don’t. If I am suited to this job I will get this job, if I’m not it wasn’t meant to be.

So why am writing about this today? Well sometimes a chain in events happen that are so unlikely to occur at once that it makes you think ‘surely that cannot be coincidence?’ I was reading through the job papers on Friday and one job jumped out of the page at me. It was the sort of job that I wanted to apply for right then and there. My initial response would be either to write a letter and send in my c.v via post or email it, but on this occasion I decided to walk the 4 miles into town and deliver it myself. When I found the road, I walked up and down looking for this small office that was not very well sign posted. I was nearly going to give up and post it in the nearest post box when something strange happened.

“Ah Coops, how you doing?” came the voice as I stood in the road looking for a stamp. I looked up. It was a person called Mark who I had worked with six years previously at my old company Zurich. “Yeah not bad, back from Australia and applying for jobs at the moment” was my reply. After a little bit chat we were about to go our separate ways when I said “You don’t know where this company is, I‘ve given up looking for them”. He looked at the address. “I should know, I work for them, how funny is that!”. Not only did he work for this company but he knew who to deliver the letter to.

Sure it could have been coincidence, but the fact that I subconsciously chose to deliver the letter, the fact I came at a time when he was outside on lunch, the fact that I got lost and therefore arrived at the right time, the fact that I knew this person and the fact that he actually worked for this company that I could not find left me feeling slightly euphoric. It was a Sliding Doors moment.


Saying that, sods law I won’t get the job. Damn fate. Just a load on nonsense if you ask me.