I'm still trying to understand that. I don't see how things can "change" if you aren't doing anything you weren't going to do anyway.
My belief on this is that first, the future is not yet set most times we do a reading. It can be changed. The cards can only tell you the most likely outcome, which is not by far the only way things could work out. They do not tell you THE future, just the most likely outcome.
My belief is that you are right. IF you do exactly what you were going to do at the time the reading was done and have the exact same thoughts you would have had anyway, then no nothing will change.
But this is not always the case. Since the cards can only show the most likely outcome, sometimes the least likely outcome will be the one that happens. Let's say the weather says 10% chance of rain today. It is unlikely to rain, but it still may. 10% still means there is a chance that it could happen. It is not impossible for it to do so.
Next, besides what we say or do, a change in our thoughts can be enough to change our future. Different thought patterns can very naturally lead to different futures. If we feel more confident about a situation we will likely react different to it than if we feel it is hopeless to try. If something/anything at all comes along that changes our attitude even slightly that can change the future. Or it may not. Depending on how WE choose to react to this thing. We can choose to take it seriously or to ignore it. That is our choice and which we will choose is not usually known in advance, because we have that free choice at every moment of our lives.
The cards, I believe, can predict what will come into our paths, but not yet exactly how we will react to it, feel about it, and what thoughts it will lead us to have. Because we have free will to react to things as we choose. The thoughts and feelings we choose to have affect outcome. Even thoughts and feelings we are barely aware of can have an effect.
Of course that is hard to know in the end IF we have reacted to a situation exactly as we would have at the time the reading was done or if something has changed in the way we reacted . If we have a reading talking about 3 months from now, we don't really know every single thing we would have done and every thought we would have in that 3 months period, There is no real way to see to judge afterwards if anything has changed.
Classic, maybe oversimplified example how even something as simple as having a reading done can change the future. Someone is worried if they will pass an exam in school. It is important to them and they planned to study hard.
A reading tells them they will pass with flying colours. And they stay out all night and party because the cards told them they will do really well and they think it's a sure thing. They don't do the studying they would have done before they got the reading. Their worry would have caused them to study hard. But having been told they will do well....no worry, no studying and they fail
The reading in this case was accurate at the moment it was done. They WOULD have done really well. BUT the minute they saw the reading, they changed their attitude and that changed the future.
So that is my answer as I see it. That no, IF you do not change a thing that is likely the future that will come. Although it is not 100%. As the cards can only predict the most likely future not the ONLY one that could come. IF you react unusually in any way to something that comes up, eg if you always react one way and this time you go in = the complete opposite direction, the cards may not pick up on it and still give the more likely outcome according to how you usually react. Which will not be accurate.
Also any change it attitude or in the way you think has the potential to lead to a change in the future. If we are going to face something unusual, the cards can only predict how you will react and what that will lead to according to the way you usually react. Based on past experience and on knowing who you are. Readings on the future work BECAUSE we are creatures of habit and tend to react in predictable ways. That is what Tarot picks up on.Usually in fact they do work because we ARE creatures of habit, But sometimes we do something unsual and the cards can't pick up on it. I have even at times have the cards tell me outright that the outcome is not knowable yet and things could go either way.
Those are some of my thoughts on that anyway.
Before I try to read for something on the future I do my best to explain this all, how reading son the future work and that they can only at best tell the most likely outcome, but not by far the only one. And that we ourselves can very much affect how things end. It's in our hands.
Babs