When you hear the phrase “there are no accidents”, it immediately comes to your mind that there is something spectacular about that phrase. Accidents are unexpected occurrences and there are countless such in our world today. But when one says that there are really no accidents, it is not to say that there are actually no accidents (of course, there are), but it brings up the question of how you react to unexpected occurrences in your life.
I first categorically heard the phrase “there are no accidents” from the movie “Kungfu Panda” when Master Oogway asked Master Shifu to believe in and accept Po (the panda) as the Dragon Warrior. Judging from the looks and abilities of Po at such a time when a very powerful Dragon Warrior was being anticipated, there was every reason to consider Po a mistake or an accident, but eventually, it became clear that indeed, there are no accidents.
To show that there are even more insights we can get from the singular phrase “There are no accidents”, I recently came across a new American bestseller book by Jessie Singer titled “There Are No Accidents” where the writer describes how this phrase has become an excuse for the preventable mishaps caused by government and people in power. Singer puts unashamedly that there are no accidents, and that this should stop deterring society from holding those in power accountable for the “accidents” they should have prevented.
Such an interesting phrase, isn’t it? I guess it’s worth dedicating the next few sections to talking more about why there are really no accidents. Stay with me.
What does it mean to say there are no accidents?
I have given two ways where it might be valid to say that there are no accidents: Kungfu Panda and Jessie Singer’s book. How about we talk a little more about these and probably include a few more ways where it might be safe to say there are no accidents?
1. What you have is a gift, it is not an accident
Master Oogway’s character also said, “You are too concerned with what was and what will be. There is a saying: Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present”. But many people have not learned to take ‘today’ as the gift that it is. We are more concerned with the things that we don’t have, and the reasons why ‘these accidents’ happened to us.
The moment you learn to agree that there are no accidents and begin to look at the gifts today gives to you, it will get clearer how the things and events and situations you call accidents and uncertainties would become the raw materials/situations that nature puts in your way of success.
2. Accident or not, there are some actions behind it
Believe it or not, the number of accidents on a daily basis, I mean road traffic accidents, is alarmingly high. In 2018, Statista reported that over 12 million vehicles were involved in road traffic accidents that year, with a fatality rate of up to 1.13 deaths per 100 million miles travelled. That same year, the United States had more than two million motor vehicle accidents. It led to more than three million injuries and more than 37,000 deaths.[1]World Population Review
In 2020, the US National Statistics reported that there were over 5.2 million road traffic collisions, over 1.5 million injuries, 35,766 fatalities, and over 3.6 million property damage as a result.[2]National Highway Traffic Administration, United States These figures, though fluctuating, are on the increase, and this is not to talk of other developing countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and so on.
The World Health Organization also weighed in that, “every year the lives of approximately 1.3 million people are cut short as a result of a road traffic crash. Between 20 and 50 million more people suffer non-fatal injuries, with many incurring a disability as a result of their injury.”[3]Road traffic injuries – WHO
Accidents are unexpected events but in all of these, there is always that preventable human factor that we fail to acknowledge. We have the government’s inability to improve the quality of the roads, the failure of drivers to adhere to traffic rules, unwillingness to service the machine parts of our vehicles, drunk driving, driving and texting; these are the human factor we all do nothing about. It is on this ground that one can blatantly point out that many accidents today are not unexpected, one saw it coming.
3. Success does not come by luck, it comes through work
It will amaze you how many people still live their life based on luck. Unfortunately, I don’t have the exact statistics but this is commonplace as far as I know. There are no accidents when it comes to achieving success, and if you think you can just wait for your ‘unexpected time’ to hit luck, you might wait for all eternity.
This is another important idea we could refer to when we say there are no accidents. You can be tempted to excuse away people’s successes as mere coincidences or strokes of fate, making you less motivated to put in the work required to achieve similar successes and even more.
4. You are not an accident, you have a purpose
[ez-toc] The simple fact is, nature makes mistakes but there are still no accidents. Let me explain.
There are thousands of genes in the human body and during the development of the embryo from which we all came, there are millions of signals to organize our cells and organs the way they eventually become. During this process, certain external and internal insults act together to influence the integrity and otherwise of this complex process of development. Along the line, birth defects might occur.
Life is not fair because only a few get to experience these congenital challenges that might impair their abilities. But just in case you are one of such who nature wasn’t fair to, I’d still like to tell you that you are not an accident and have a divine purpose if you could look to discover it.
5. There is light on the bright side of things
Okay, let’s now agree that there are some tragedies in life. Unexpected outcomes, accidents we never dreamt of; many of these kinds of experiences are common in our day-to-day lives. Many times, they are extremely painful events we wish never to experience. This qualifies to be described as an accident, and there are indeed accidents in this regard.
However, when you learn to look beyond accidents, it gives you a new boost to rise above the circumstances. You begin to look to the bright side of every experience you encounter, whether positive or negative. This mindset would eventually make you a testimony instead of wallowing in pain and disappointment. This kind of strength is possible when you accept that there are indeed no accidents.
Knowing why it is the way it is
To say that there are no accidents puts the responsibility on you to find out why it is the way it is. I don’t mean this in a negative way though. It is not the time to be finding unnecessary reasons to lament, complain, or regret. It is the time to work your way through to discover for yourself why things are the way they are now.
If the number of road traffic accidents is increasing as we saw, saying there are no accidents puts us on the hot seat to uncover the factors or take measures that are against the factors promoting high road accidents. If you feel you are not where you want to be, saying there are no accidents places you on your mark to work out ways to get where you want to be. But in the end, you don’t fold your hands at your situation, rather you work your way until you get to the point where you can look back and smile.
Conclusion
Now, when we say there are no accidents, I’m sure you know the various standpoints from which we do so. Accidents occur every day, and mistakes do occur, but if we are alive the next moment, the onus is on us to look ahead and not dwell on what has already happened.
Get Jessie Singer’s “There Are No Accidents” here
References
| ↑1 | World Population Review |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | National Highway Traffic Administration, United States |
| ↑3 | Road traffic injuries – WHO |
