To create or discover our lives

In a sense, there are two ways to live: setting out to create the life we want to live and discovering the life that is revealed to us by responding to what happens.

From the surface, creating the life we want seems the best way to live. Instead of passively reacting to life, we are actively forging the life that we have envisaged. On the other hand, just letting things happen seems rather ad-hoc and fickle. But there might be some merit in playing with "fate". 

If we understand how puny our minds and powerless our wills are, we can see that any grand plan we make could potentially limit us. There are so many things we would fail to conceive, factor in, foresee, so Life can throw us curb balls that open our eyes to new possibilities. If we acknowledge that there is a more powerful force that controls everything, be it God or the universe, then any plans we have are completely conditional on this power. So, there might be good reason to "see what happens", see what life presents us with. 

This is no excuse for being idle, and it doesn't rule out planning all together. We need to plan in order to effectively deal with life's many aspects. But these plans needn't be set in stone. Our plans can be altered if we are presented with better opportunities. So, should we create or discover our lives? Probably a bit of both.