In a village below the hill was a group of boys who played together. Sometimes they climbed the hill to visit the old man and ask him questions, for which he always seemed to have the correct answer. Over time, it became a little game, with the boys continually trying to think of a question that the old man could not answer. But they were never successful.
One day, a boy named Aram called the others around him and said, "I have finally found a way to stump the old man. Here in my hand, I have a bird. We will go and ask the old man if the bird is alive or dead. If he says that it is dead, I will release it and it will fly away. If he says that it is alive, I will crush it, and the bird will be dead. Either way , he will at last have been proven wrong."
Excited about the prospect of finally catching the old man with a wrong answer, they hurried up the hill. The old man watched them coming and noticed the eager looks on their faces. Then Aram stepped forward and asked. "Old man, I have a bird here in my hands. Is it alive or is it dead?"
The old man looked at their mischievous, expectant faces and then quietly said, "Aram, it is in your hands."
The point and moral of this story is that almost everything that happens to you is in your hands. Your destiny is very much up to you. Your future is largely determined by yourself, by your own choices and decisions. What you achieve is the result of what you do , or fail to do , day by day and year by year.
The management guru Peter Drucker wrote, "The very best way to predict the future is to create it."
Hope is not a strategy for success.Your life is too precious and important to be left to chance.Decide today to create your own future.
(Excerpts from: "Create Your Own Future..by Brian Tracy")