Make It a Good Day!

Are our lives predetermined or are we in control? If we're in control, how much do we control?

You would expect a person working at a fast food franchise to say "Have a nice day!" when he/she hands you your change. This saying supports the philosophical view of determinism. Determinism is a belief that says things happen because of something that occurred before it. Most people who work at fast food franchises are trained to say "Have a Good Day" after handing you your change. This saying give customers a positive attitude when they hear it. Of course you want to act civilized so you respond, "You have a nice day too," even when you don't mean it.

"Have a nice day" has become a cliché so widely used that it is understood by people all over the world, including those who don't even speak English. The question is, do they really know what they're saying?

Many people don't understand what this cliché means. If you use this cliché, you're promoting the world to take you where it wants to take you. You have no control of how your day will be like. You become reactive of your environment instead of proactive. That is, waiting for a miracle to happen instead of increasing your chances of making it happen. The world would have no innovations and there would be no such things as leaders.

Since there are innovations in this world, and there are people that possess great leadership skills, we are all guilty for using this cliché. There is another belief called free will, in which a person has complete control of his/her future. But that is unlikely because of the glass ceiling limitations that would stop you.

The glass ceiling effect is when you climb up a ladder, you see all the opportunities, but you can't get ahold of it because a glass ceiling hinders your way of reaching to the other side. Such limitations include discrimination against sexes, races, or disabilities. It can also be interpreted as being limited to time, money, and resources.

An alternative to the cliché would be "Make it a good day!" since you do have some control of how your future would be like. I believe we have control of ~50% of our lives. How much of our lives do you think we control?