Once upon a time there was a fisherman who rowed his boat out into the middle of the lake every morning, and rowed it back to shore every evening. He spent a lot of time on that lake... and he never caught anything.
I blame his technique; I think he was missing something. You see, he never baited a hook or cast a lure. He just rowed out to the middle of the lake in the morning, and rowed back to shore in the evening. He was waiting for the fish to jump into THE boat.
To be fair, that had happened, once... a long time ago. A beautiful fish, and he'd simply sat agog while the fish flipped and flopped and eventually slipped back into the lake. Ever since, he'd been hoping that it would happen again; more, he'd been hoping that the same fish would jump back into his boat.
I tried to explain to him that the odds against such a thing happening once were enormous and that the odds of a repeat were astronomical, but he just shook his head and went about his business.
This fable is broadly applicable. It applies to how for most of my life I sought a companion, whether "for a while" or "for life." It applies to how many seek jobs or opportunities or understanding or hope. It's the "wait and see" approach and it assumes that if something is "meant to be," it'll happen and it doesn't matter what you do or don't do.
The thing is, the only way that fisherman is going to catch any fish is to take appropriate action. He can't just do any old thing; he's going to have to bait his hook or select a lure, he's going to have to cast his line into the water, and he's going to have to keep doing it.
Heck, if he does that he might even catch the one that got away. He probably won't, but it's a lot more likely than for that same fish to jump into his boat two times. And if he doesn't bait and cast, he'll keep coming ashore with nothing.
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