Soulful Sundays: Inevitability

"You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today." —Abraham Lincoln

Watching the Winter Olympics is beyond thrilling. The best athletes from each sport gather to compete on the biggest, iciest, and steepest stages in the world. The intensity is palpable—eighty-mile-per-hour luge runs, massive ski jumps, twists and flips in the half-pipe, and incredible velocity everywhere. The level of preparation, commitment, and daring is unparalleled, and most competitors would sacrifice anything for a place on the podium. It is this devotion—shall we say obsession—to greatness that separates the good from the elite. By the time they reach the Olympics, there is a certain degree of inevitability about how things will unfold. Luck plays a role, but it can only do so much at that level.

While we may seem disconnected from the incredible feats of Olympians, we are all choosing to become masters in our own right. Each day sets the stage for practice, and whether or not we acknowledge it, we are all getting better at something. Consider the concept of behavioral reinforcement—behaviors that are rewarded are repeated, and those that are not fade. This applies to positive and negative activities alike. Whether we train to land a triple Salchow on the ice or train ourselves to procrastinate on our phones, the process is identical. What we do repeatedly eventually becomes inevitable.

Each moment requires deliberate choice. Even the most inconsequential action has the power to lead to an unintended outcome. Small decisions can snowball into something great or something destructive, and by the time we mobilize to change course, it may feel too late. The die seems cast. The crash feels inevitable. Yet knowing—or even assuming—the future is not our place as human beings. Even if we believe we can see the outcome, there is still a process creating it. Certainty is no excuse for shirking responsibility. Late in the game, comebacks still happen. Fate can be rewritten by focused action. Few of us are built for the Olympic standard, but all of us can live like it.