There's a Good Reason for Everything that Happens

Everything happens for a reason. We've all heard that saying, and it's true. Whether you know it or not, everything happens for a reason, and that reason is your highest and best good, and personal growth. Birth, death, success, failure, whatever the situation, like it or not, it's for your best, your personal growth.

Maybe you’re wondering how, say, losing your job or being on the verge of foreclosure is good for you, or an opportunity for personal growth? Or how a traffic jam on the highway that has you backed up two miles short of your exit and you’re going to be late for an appointment is a good thing?

Here's how. When you know that everything happens for a reason, and that the reason is good, in every situation you find yourself, especially those that don't seem good, you can look for the good. And when you're looking for good, really looking, and you’re open to finding it, you can find it.

What good could you find in losing your job or being on the verge of foreclosure? If you’re in that situation, you might feel desperate and like you have nothing to lose, which makes you free to take a chance you might not otherwise have taken. Since everything happens for a reason, the freedom to take a chance could be the reason.

You could take all the craft projects you've worked on over the years, go to a craft show and sell them so successfully a new career is launched. Or maybe being unemployed has given you time you never had before and you use it to work on crafts and from that you have items to sell to launch a new career.

Or you could have a yard sale, make some money, and during the sale maybe you meet someone who will offer you a job, or knows someone who needs to hire someone for a position you’d be absolutely perfect for.

Stuck in a huge traffic jam when you've got a meeting? Knowing that everything happens for a reason lets you use the extra time to go over the issues you need to bring up, helping you get them all sorted out, or your favorite song comes on the radio and helps calm your nerves. Maybe you'll hear a comment or news story that is exactly what you need to hear at that point in time, but you would have missed if your drive had been shorter.

I heard a saying once that helps me find the good in even the toughest spots. "You are not given experiences to test how strong you are, but to prove to you how strong you are."

In the very worst situations-a death, serious illness-where it's hard to see any good at all, the good might simply be a chance to learn just how strong and resilient you are.

At this point you might be saying this is all just look on the bright side stuff, and you’d be right. It is. And that’s part of the point. Not looking on the bright side doesn’t change the fact that you’re unemployed, or the bank wants to repossess your car, or you’re stuck in traffic and are going to be late to work.

And if you focus on looking at the “dark” side, you’re going to experience the situation with dark, possibly depressing thoughts about. But by looking on the “bright” side, while you’re still in the situation, your thoughts and attitude are more optimistic and hopeful, and that’s the mindset that sees possibilities and brings about positive change.

And who wouldn’t rather be in a good frame of mind about something than a bad one? Sometimes it really is as simple as looking for the good in things.

Although you may not able to find the good in any given situation at first, it's there, and if you look hard enough, you'll usually find it.

That being said, sometimes you might not ever know the reason—but know that there was one. By being stuck in traffic, maybe you missed being involved in an accident up the road. Maybe something would have fallen on your head as you walked down the sidewalk, or a car would have run you down as you crossed the street, but you weren’t there.

Remember, everything happens for a reason, and the reason is good.