Tree of life

I always had the question in mind if karma is pre-determined or is it a result of free-will. I always used to think that if its pre-determined there is no point for god giving us all this beautiful life with all the faculties that we enjoy or have at our disposal. There is another school of thought where if karma is a result of our actions, then the actions itself are pre-determined. Is it possible to break out of that?

If you observe a tree, it's very synonymous to our life. We always start at the root. They are no branches near the root. As our intelligence is developing (synonymous to we moving upwards along the trunk), the branches appear in the form of choices. Later on at every point in our life, we will be presented with choices about various aspects of our life. If we make the right choices and keep travelling along the trunk, we will reach the top. Every human being born is destined or is perfectly capable to reach the top. But somewhere along the way, because of the choices we make, we may end up in a different place on the tree.

But if you think about it, it is perfectly possible to find our way back to the top of the tree. Tree will teach us that possibility. Now the real question is how do we know that we are travelling along the trunk. The most fundamental thing to remember is that if you make a decision and be able to not remember anything regarding that ever again, then you can be assured that you are moving along the trunk and its just a matter of time before you reach the top. If not, we just need to deal with the after-effects of our decision