Every moment leads to the next. When you look back through the years, you’ll see the universe follows a logical path. Nothing happens “randomly” – randomly being unexpectedly, illogically, unpredictably. Everything happens because of the thing that happened right before it.
Maybe the universe only appears logical because humans have the ability to detect logic and reason in the world around us. I’m not here to posit whether organization exists if there’s no one there to appreciate it. The question isn’t if a falling tree makes a sound if no one is around to hear it; the question is: what do we do with the knowledge that things make noise when they hit the ground? Or in the case of Nature’s logic, how do we use this rational flow to improve our lives?
We have been given the gift of rational thought and the ability to understand the world around us and how things work. Each event can be explained by looking at each moment leading up to it. Nothing “just happens” without any logical explanation. If the world were truly absurd, you’d step outside your front door and your driveway would turn to sand. Life would look similar to Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – random and improbable. Nothing would be predictable and things would not need explanation.
This is how I view the progression of time and in this blog, I’ll share how I use this logical flow to my advantage. With the knowledge that one event will likely lead to a logical next event, I can make efforts to move in a desired direction. It’s not a matter of controlling the universe, but I believe you can control your choices and those choices have a strong impact on what happens next.
As always, I don’t have all the answers, but I hope my expedition to try finding them inspires you to start the search in your own life.
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The Logical Flow
If we look back to the beginning of time and trace every step it took to get to where we are now, it would make complete sense. From the first moment, to the first living organism, to fish, to land creatures, to apes, to humans, to you reading this – every event happened because of the moment right before and every moment before that.
Say you place humans at the start of time to witness the universe unfold, we may not have been able to predict how everything would unfold, but when each thing did, it wouldn’t come as a shock. If you watched fish start to grow appendages similar to legs, you wouldn’t think “Oh, I bet the next iteration will fly”. No, of course land is next. Similarly, you wouldn’t light a fire and expect water to spill out of the wood.
While we cannot predict the future with 100% certainty, I believe we can come quite close. If we base our assumption off the steps leading up to this moment, we can make decent guesses to what’s next. Events don’t just happen. You won’t be walking to work and Big Foot appears from thin air right in front of you. Illogical occurrences aren’t a threat. Even if Big Foot DID appear out of thin air, there would be an explanation behind it.
Why am I talking about Big Foot? Well something must have triggered that example to pop into my mind as a way to make my point. Life is not random, unpredictable, or illogical. There is a lot happening all at once, it all happens because of what happened before, and you can almost guarantee it’ll continue in this way.
You have no control over Nature, but I’m a firm believer in each of our abilities to choose how we think and act in each moment. With this power, we can think and act in ways that will logically flow to the next moment. The choice we make now can put us closer to what we want.
Anger Begets Anger
The Stoics discuss controlling our impulses and acts of passion as a way to manage our emotions and live a fulfilling, happy life. As I’ve continued to understand my emotions and the actions each wants me to perform, I’ve noticed how this logical flow of life plays out negatively. Each act of passion leads to an undesirable outcome which leads to more passion, more illogical action, and more passion.
For instance, a line forms at work, I feel overwhelmed, I start rushing, I get angry, I make a mistake, I get angry, I continue rushing, and the cycle continues. Anger leads to more anger. Anxiety leads to more anxiety. Say I try figuring out how to live off this blog, I start calculating how much money I need, how many views I’d need, all the ways I could make money off it, check my current insights, start saving money I don’t have… all the while, I’m not focused on the task at hand. I’m not writing the blog, I’m not reading the philosophy, forming my own thoughts, or practicing virtue.
All the passions, every impulse kickstarts a positive feedback loop that creates more of that illogical passion and action. Even acts of pleasure and desire may appear as though the outcome is positive, but after the initial dopamine hit, you’re back to square one, wondering how you can find more. As long as you’re acting out of passion and illogical impulse, you’ll continue experiencing undesirable emotions and outcomes. The logical flow will continue until the chain is broken.
Since, as humans, we have rational thought and the ability to choose, we can break the chain. Not only that, we can direct our path towards peace, joy, and calm.
Dominoes and Chess
Life is similar to a chain of dominoes. All the events are lined up and once the chain starts, it’ll continue until the end. A lot of times, it can feel like you’re the dominoes, but in reality, you’re the person setting them up.
You need to know the end goal – where you want the path of dominoes to lead. You then place the first domino by making a choice in that direction. When I’m overwhelmed at work and start feeling anger rise, I have the choice to start the chain of dominoes that leads to more anger and shame or I can start building a chain towards peace and calm.
I’ve started asking myself at work, “What can I do now to increase my chances of having a good day?” Then I make individual, rational choices, one leading to the next. Taking a deep breath, slowing down my pace, loosening my RBF, turning on a good playlist, making eye contact, focusing on one drink at a time… One choice starts the chain of dominoes. So when I end the day happy I can look back and say “Of course it went well, I did X, Y, Z”
With bad habits, the chain becomes apparent when you start noticing your own patterns. So when I used to skip the gym, it made sense looking back at the logical flow of events – long day at work, I’m tired, I trudge home, need for pleasure (rest) makes me sit on the couch, I pull out my phone, I get on tik tok, I scroll, tiredness builds, more lazy actions follow, no gym. But now that I recognize the pattern, I either prevent it all together or interrupt the chain when I become aware of it.
It’s intentionally making one choice after another. Promote peace by making deliberate choices in the right direction. If a shitty song comes on the playlist, you skip it. If your nose is running, you blow it. If you’re thirsty, drink water. These choices are obvious and I think every choice can be just as easy once you become aware of how much control you have of your own life.
You don’t have to stand around and let life batter you around. You have the ability to make choices in every moment. You have the power to direct the logical flow of events in a way that leads to your own peace and well-being.
Final Thoughts
If you look back at time, moment by moment, you’ll see that everything followed a logical path. This moment logically flowed from the moment before, and that moment from the moment before. Being able to recognize this pattern allows you to reverse engineer a happy life.
If you picture your ideal future self and look back at the steps it took to get to this version of you, the path would make complete sense. You don’t become that person through poor choices, that person comes from making good choices. Looking at the whole timeline, you realize how many things have to happen, how many choices you’ll make, how many mistakes you’ll make along the way. That can be overwhelming and debilitating, but it can’t stop you from acting.
All you have to do is make a choice right now. Make the choice you believe will put you one step closer to the goal.
Start building your chain of dominoes. One day you’ll look back and it’ll all make sense.
April 19, 2026
