Here’s a sneak peek of one of the most highly rated discussion points in my Good to Marvellous workshops.

In my workshop, I reference a memorable moment from the animated film Kung Fu Panda. There’s a line in the movie that captures something profound.

Oogway, the wise old turtle, has a dream that the fearsome villain Tai Lung will escape from prison.

At that point, Tai Lung is chained and guarded by hundreds of elite warriors in a fortress-like underground prison. Escaping seems impossible.

Concerned, Oogway sends his sidekick — the duck, Mr. Ping — to the prison to check on things. But during his descent into the facility, a feather accidentally falls from his wing and lands in a precise position, triggering a chain of events that lead to Tai Lung’s escape.

It becomes clear: Had Mr. Ping not gone to the prison, Tai Lung would not have escaped.

Which leads to Oogway’s unforgettable line:

“One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it.”

A simple but potent description of what psychology calls a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Let’s see how this plays out in our daily lives.

It’s true: we can either live in fear or in hope. But due to the brain’s negativity bias, fear often wins. Our minds are wired to protect us — and in doing so, they often imagine worst-case scenarios and try to pass them off as truth.

And when we believe those imagined fears, we begin to act accordingly — which in turn can shape the very outcome we fear.

Examples?

• You think a judge, a civil servant, or a bank employee doesn’t like you. So you approach them defensively, ready for insult. You overreact to a neutral remark, they get triggered, things escalate — and you say, “See? I knew they were rude.”

• You believe you’ll be late to an event with your partner or kids. That belief makes you act nervously, you say something sharp, a fight breaks out — and the fight causes the very delay you feared.

• You believe you’re not good enough to be trusted with high-profile cases. That belief makes you shrink back, your manager senses doubt, and doesn’t assign you a challenge. “See?” you tell yourself, “I knew I wasn’t good enough.”

It’s worth remembering: Your mind’s job isn’t to tell the truth — it’s to keep you alive. And it often does so by imagining threats that feel more certain than they really are.

So ask yourself: Have you ever been possessed by a story — one that felt like certainty, but turned out to be just a fearful prediction?

Have you ever created the very thing you were hoping to avoid?

Question your imagined certainties. They may be shaping your reality more than you realise.

— Philippos