Butterfly Effect & Choices
December 19th, 2023 (10 months ago) • 2 minutes
In chaos theory, the butterfly effect is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions in which a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state.
Small choices that we make in life can completely change our lives, bringing us rare and special moments.
But making choices is tough, and our brains are not really great at it. That's why we often go into autopilot mode and choose the easiest way out – the choice that has the lowest risk, lowest reward, and requires the least mental capacity to make a decision.
How we choose to approach this shapes our entire life experience. There is always a better choice in hindsight, or thoughts about how your life could have changed if you had chosen differently. There are too many choices, too little time, and it's impossible to act on all of them.
What we can do best is to pay attention to what we have NOW. Appreciate the decisions you make and move forward from there. Pay attention to how these choices help you grow into a better person.
As Confucius said: "无论走到哪里，遵从你的内心" which translates to "wherever you go, go with all your heart".