Fontaine once said, "A man often meets his fate on the road he took to avoid it."

The outcomes we experience are not entirely in our control. No matter what we do or how hard we try, we can never obtain an absolute guarantee that things will turn out a certain way and not another.

While this doesn't mean we shouldn't equip ourselves to avoid things going wrong or to reduce the probability of things going wrong, we should.

But we shouldn't focus our energies on ensuring the certainty of a certain outcome.

It helps to put our best foot forward and focus our energies on the things that are in our control to shape and build the equanimity to embrace and take it in our stride when something we can't control doesn't go our way.