One of the most difficult searches in life is knowing why you're on this planet Earth. Religious people believe we were all created with a purpose to accomplish before our death and called that "our destiny". Unfortunately, all we end up doing is setting goals and working toward accomplishing them every year and this goes on and on and we wonder what exactly is our destiny?.
The English dictionary defines destiny as:
a predetermined state; a condition foreordained by the Divine or by human will; fate; lot; doom.
From the definition above, it shows destiny is foreordained by either God or a man's will and what becomes inevitable in a man's life is known as fate. Most people live, grow old, and die without knowing exactly what they were born to accomplish. A preacher once said, "before any child is born, there's always a problem waiting for him to come to solve and that becomes his destiny". But most times we live as if we're trying to survive instead of solving a problem. Several times I had desired to know what my purpose is, so that I could focus my energy on pursuing that, but once again I returned with no answers. A man who becomes a preacher in life is said to be his destiny, and they add by saying, not everyone was born to be a preacher.
I believe in destiny and karma, but it gets difficult to place our hands on what exactly is expected of us to become in a few years from now. As much as I believe in destiny, I strongly believe it's more of discovering who we are and what we can do rather than becoming a certain professional in life. God has instilled certain abilities in us, if we are able to discover them, and work on it to help better the life of humanity, that becomes one destiny else he lives his life paying dearly for his daily actions. Until we know who we are, we can't fulfil destiny, we just live a life trying to survive on what life offers. Destiny is true, but just a few unveil that ability to live the dream of God for their lives and that's what makes the idea of destiny complicated to the average man. If God knows our beginning and end, He sure had predetermined us to become something before the end.
Karma on the other hand means:
The idea that one reaps what one sows; destiny; fate.
This is true, and that's why the teaching on good deeds is being encouraged in every gathering. We surely pay for every deed and this comes up later in our lives. The Hindus believe whatever a man does while on earth, he reaps its reward in the afterlife, but no, everything we sow , whether lifestyle we live, the actions that we take, we reap all of its reward here on Earth. To some it comes early in life while others late in their lives. Karma can also be seen as the resultant effect of the sum total of our actions which forms who we become in the future. A smoker may likely develop lung cancer of the lungs, tuberculosis, etc. In the future, an evil woman would be abandoned by people when she gets old, etc. Both destiny and karma exist, and they're all as a result of our actions in life.