Chance and randomness play a bigger role in our lives than we often realise. From the mundane to the extraordinary, many aspects of our daily experiences involve some element of chance. Examining how chance operates can give us insight into the unpredictability of life.
In small, mundane ways, chance affects our routine activities. For example, whether you catch all green lights or hit every red on your commute is largely left to chance. The checkout line you choose at the grocery store and whether it ends up moving faster than the others comes down to luck. Even small interactions, like who you end up seated next to on the bus or whether a stranger smiles back at you, involve chance.
We can try to optimise our odds, like picking the shortest checkout line, but we can't control these outcomes. Over time, the cumulative effect of these little instances of chance can lead to very different daily experiences. A string of lucky breaks leaves you energised, while a series of unlucky delays causes frustration.
Chance also plays a role in significant life events, though we may not like to admit our lack of control. You might try your luck at an online casino (find a full review here of the best ones in Canada), but whether you win or lose comes down to the whims of probability. The college you get into, whether you meet your soulmate, what job opportunities come your way, and even world events that affect you are all influenced by chance.
Some might see life as a series of conscious choices, but chance disrupts these orderly narratives. A missed flight leads to a chance encounter that changes your career path. A lucky investment skyrockets and transforms your finances. We can certainly steer our lives in a direction, but chance provides the essential ingredient of unpredictability.
Nowhere is the role of chance more evident than in our health outcomes. Though we try to eat well and exercise, genes and the environment also affect our health in ways we cannot control. Your genetic predispositions, the particular flu virus you are exposed to, the chance mutation of a cell that leads to cancer - these pivotal health events demonstrate the power of chance.
Likewise, geographic chance heavily influences our life expectancy. Your genetic makeup remains the same, but being born in Canada versus South Sudan leads to an over 30-year discrepancy in average lifespan. Even within countries, people in prosperous areas tend to live longer, highlighting the chance role of where we are born.
The weather and natural disasters also demonstrate how chance events outside our control affect lives. Whether a hurricane hits your city or not is pure chance, but hugely impacts property, livelihoods, and mental health. Something as unpredictable as rainfall patterns influence crop yields and food supply. While we cannot eliminate chance in weather, preparedness and climate action may optimise the odds.
The role of chance in life may seem dispiriting at first, like we are not masters of our own fate. But accepting the unpredictable also provides freedom from burdening expectations. You can make sensible plans and work diligently, all while acknowledging that external forces will affect the outcome. Appreciating the whims of chance allows you to avoid blaming yourself for outcomes you could not control.
Seeing ourselves as collaborators with chance rather than sole authors of our destiny gives us perspective. We focus less on the illusion of control and more on making the most of whatever chances come our way. Though challenging at times, embracing life’s uncertainty keeps us open, adaptable, and mindful that anything could happen.
From the mundane to the momentous, chance shapes our lives in subtle yet far-reaching ways. Recognising its influence allows us to think probabilistically, avoid undue self-blame, and welcome unpredictability. Chance mandates flexibility, equanimity, and openness to possibilities. Though we cannot control it, we can learn to gracefully collaborate with the capriciousness of chance.
