Destiny vs. Free will

Soul group is a bunch of souls incarnating together in order to learn their spiritual lessons more effectively. Each participant chooses its gender and role. The life circumstances are determined together by the soul group members.
For example: we’ll meet in such and such place, fall in love, have 3 lovely children, the fourth child will be autistic (to help us learn patience) then, the father will suddenly die (to help us learn to survive financially) and so forth.

Before we get into our new body, we forget everything, so we can better overcome the obstacles we put down our path. “And where is my free will?” you may ask. Before our rebirth, we make a blue print, a map; I like to call it “the multi options map”. It looks like a hiking trails map, or a big tree with many branches.
Lots of junctions and possibilities. I could have married Dave or Josh or two years later, Ben. I could choose to be a doctor, a teacher or a singer. Living in New York, Amsterdam or Los Angeles will offer way different opportunities for growth.
 

So we are basically choosing between many given options, that we had lied in advance. We had planned it, with the rest of the participants in the game of life. The free will allows us to choose what to do with the harsh life circumstances. For instance: a boy is born on the wrong side of the tracks. That’s a given. What he’ll make out of it is a whole new story. True, his father is an alcoholic, his sister sells her body and his friends are criminals.
 

He is “destined” to follow suite but his free will calls for a change, breaking out of the vicious cycle. Like in the many success stories we find in the media daily, people overcome birth defects limitations, horrific life circumstances and immense physical and mental challenges like war, hunger and torture.
In a metaphor from self conscious Los Angeles, life is a “mental gym”. In the physical gym we work out our physical muscles. Life causes us to pump up our mental muscles, our traits. Resistance training is key in building our muscles. We need weights, something to work against, to break some sweat. In a similar way, by facing hardship and “resistance” in life, we grow spiritually. Such challenge can be a rebellious son, mother in law from hell, financial hardship, annoying boss, divorce, a parent who got cancer, self doubt, a child with down syndrome, impulsiveness which causes me to lose it way too often.
“All right, I got it. So now what? I understand I planned it all for myself in advance. Now I need to take responsibility and deal with it?” “Yes, Joe” and in this understanding lies your power to achieve all of your goals in life.