The subject of destiny keeps popping up on the TV shows I watch, and it always comes in the form of "you control your own destiny."  I personally think that's a misunderstanding of the word.  Destiny is "the inevitable or necessary fate" or "a predetermined course of events."  By definition, if something is inevitable or predetermined, it's no longer in your control.  It's in somebody or something else's control.  You can get to the end result through a variety of different paths, but you'll always reach the same end result. 

In popular culture, people usually differentiate between fate and destiny by saying that fate is what will happen no matter what you do, while destiny is what will happen if you do the right things.  That's fair and all, but that's not what destiny means.  It's sort of a matter of semantics, but instead of saying we can control our destiny, we should say we can control our future.  Even if that's not entirely true, at least it's not entirely false. 

As Bob Costas famously ranted during the NFL playoffs this past winter, "If it's destiny or fate, folks, you can't control it.  Control the outcome, control the result.  You can't control destiny or fate." #psychology