Everything Happens for a Reason
Have you ever heard anyone recite the phrase: “Everything happens for a reason?”   Of course you have, and I actually tend to live by that mentality. I find that it brings a certain sense of peace to my life during not only positive experiences, but negative ones as well. In addition to believing that everything happens for a reason, I believe that looking for the good in every situation can lead to a substantially more optimistic life. Being able to take a “glass half full” mentality toward almost every situation you come across, not only has the potential to give you a brighter view of life, but I find that happier people tend to have an awesome influence on people around them.
Let’s apply this mentality to our current endeavor – blogging. The lessons that I have learned from blogging can be applied to many aspects of life if you think about it. A mistake in learning the correct way to format my feed may be due to improper preparation. If I did more research before setting things up around here, I’d be in a better position. Although I would love to have a properly working feed, I have instead spent hours researching, posting questions, messing around with different options, and so on, all to no avail. Does this hurt my blog? Yes. But has the experience I have gained helped me become a better blogger? I think yes.
The same goes for MANY aspects of life. Example: you work for weeks on a proposal at work complete with late nighters, frantic calls, and multiple stress filled deadlines. The whole situation was an incredibly stressful ordeal, especially because you ended up not winning the contract. Sure that is a major blow to your income via a hefty commission, not to mention a blow to your self esteem and reputation among at your company. But, although it may not be easy to do right after the incident, the experience of not winning the contract, has undoubtedly taught you an incredibly valuable lesson! Failure is such an excellent teacher!
I feel that learning through failure has the potential to make a much greater impact than learning through classrooms or positive experiences. Think about it, are you more likely to remember your college class about how to write proposals, the process of winning a contract, and how to give proper presentations to potential clients, or the actual mistakes you made when you did not win the contract? I’m guessing that the next time you have a big contract to bid on, you don’t make the same mistake twice.
So despite being a CRUSHING BLOW to your self esteem, reputation at work, salary, etc., there was actually something positive that came out of this experience – your ability to win a much bigger contract, 5 months later. Yes, that’s how my mind works. Although at the time this contract may have seemed like the WORLD to you, in reality it may have just been an excellent training experience.
I think the same mentality can apply to many different situations. For example accidents involving injuries or loss of property. A few months ago I was in a car accident and had to purchase a new car. The accident was just plain stupidity on my part – I was driving too fast in the rain and skidded into the barrier, luckily I was not injured and did not hit anybody. I had to buy a new car with cash, something that I did not want to do.
So WHAT GOOD could POSSIBLY come from this accident? For starters, I started driving much slower in the rain. The fact that I did not hit anybody else, was not injured, and was at a time in my life when I could easily purchase a new car, was nothing short of a blessing. The good in this negative experience is that this relatively MINOR outcome of my crash could have been SUBSTANTIALLY worse! Imagine if I had hit two other vehicles, and injured 3 other passengers! It’s kinda like preventive discipline. My actions (driving too fast in the rain) were disciplined now (the car accident in which I did not hurt anyone, was the only person involved, and was able to purchase a new car immediately), as a way to prevent a future, more sever accident (multiple vehicles involved, insurance rate increase, injuries, etc). Believe me, I am happy this accident turned out the way it did.
Being able to find the good in every situation is not exactly an easy thing to do! I recall, however, saying that at least this is the only thing that happened during the day of the accident. This trait is something I find incredibly useful during hard times. If you  continually focus on the negative aspects of a negative situation, as opposed to at least recognizing the potential positive, you are bound to have a higher stress level.
My point: This mentality has worked for me over the years. People I work with have noticed it, and I feel that it has helped me to maintain more positive outlook on life, especially during those unfortunate negative experiences.
Do you try to find the good in every situation? Do you believe that everything happens for a reason? If yes to any of these, how do these mentalities play a role in your life?
July 14, 2010
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myfinancialobjective · 
8 Comments
Tags: determination, Long Term Goals, motivation, passion · Posted in: Objectives
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Darren (18)
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8 Responses
Things do happen for a reason. Even bad things. I try to remember that God is in control. We humans don’t like to admit this. We like to think that we are calling the shots. We really are not. Even bad things happen because God allows it.
I don’t know if I look for the good in every situation, but when bad things do happen I search for answers – going for the solution right away. It pisses my wife off who tends to want to talk about the bad situation and her feelings about it lol
Evan´s last blog ..Why Teachers Anger Me!
FinBon, I’m with you, even bad things happen for a reason, even if we don’t realize it for months, or years.
Evan, I think that searching for the answers in a bad situation is the equivalent of feeling that even bad things happen for a reason. I think that talking about the bad even only prolongs the negative feelings. Why not find the reason, and highlight that!?
Just keep learning from your situations. I’m new to blogging too, and have a lot to learn.
And regarding the car accident, at least you paid cash? Did you take any debt? If not, good for you!
Darren´s last blog ..Why I Wanna Be A Millionaire- And What I’m Gonna Do About It
“I think that talking about the bad even only prolongs the negative feelings. Why not find the reason, and highlight that!?”
Yep! When things happen, there’s no point in crying about it; the questions should be, why did this happen, what can I learn from this, and what can I do so that it doesn’t happen again? Basically, turning a negative into a positive.
Invest It Wisely´s last blog ..Breaking Free of the Cage- Escaping the Rat Race
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I agree everything does happen for a reason, good or bad. We just can’t control what happens in the end. Yes I do try to find the good in everything. For example if you don’t make it into a school you want, you’re probably not wanted there and better off somewhere else.
Adrian @ PIN´s last blog ..Refinance Your Mortgage Now
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