It is not happening to you; it is happening for you.

Have you been in a situation where things were not happening as you planned or hoped? Have you felt no clue about what is happening in your life?

 "Life is not happening to you; it is happening for you" – Tony Robbins.

 I want to share my personal story that helped me to change the way I looked at life. 

 It is about my elder brother, Franklin. He is the second smartest person I have ever met. The first one is Me! ??. He topped the school and joined India's best medical school.

Without a doubt, he passed with honours. While we thought that everything in franklin's life is going good, I got a call from him one night, and he said, "Benji, I broke with my girlfriend", the girl he had a relationship with for the last six years. His soft trembling voice over the phone told me that Franklin sounded broken, low, disappointed and worried.

 I told my parents about this, and we invited him to come over to Abu Dhabi and stay with us for a while. It was an exciting time where I had the opportunity to visit with my brother again after ten years. We partied together, saw movies and cooked midnight meals. Within few weeks, franklin decided to take the medical licensing exam in Abu Dhabi and work as a doctor. He cleared the exam, got his license, and landed a great job in Dubai in a few days.

 We thought franklin's life is finally back on track. To celebrate, the family decided to spend the weekend in Dubai and also hand over his documents to his employer. 

 We stopped at our friends' place for lunch and had good fun. Franklin looked worried and visibly anxious. I asked him a couple of times, "Franklin is everything all right?".

He said, "Benji, the bag with all original documents including medical licenses, offer letter, graduation certificates are missing, including my brand new tablet".

He said he placed the bag next to a parking machine while buying a parking ticket. 

Franklin and I immediately ran down to look for it, and we couldn't find it anywhere. My family was completely shocked, and my mom was almost in tears. Just then, we thought everything is back to normal; Franklin had another blow. After searching for few weeks, we lost hope. The problem is, getting duplicate certificates in India would take up to a year. Puzzled and worried, franklin decided to go back to India and start preparing for his postgraduate studies.

Almost one and a half year had passed and Franklin finally made into the MD Radiology. By then, he managed to get duplicate copies of his certificates except for his license. Two weeks before his deadline to submit the documents, my dad got a call from someone in Dubai, telling him he found a file with certificates inside the metro. My father immediately informed me, "we got the certificates; someone found them; I want you to go there immediately and collect them". 

 Would you believe that, when I opened the file, I found all his certificates were there and what was more surprising was there were tyre marks on a few? It indicated that at some point, these certificates were on the road or somewhere. Until today, It's a mystery. The whole family was rejoicing in happiness, and franklin was able to join the course by submitting all his documents at the right time. 

 I treasure this memory and often remind myself about this. I am sure you will reflect on his story; many times in our lives, things go wrong, things go missing, relationships break and jobs are lost. This story has taught me three lessons to handle life's uncertainty.

1. Change your perspective: Look at life in a more positive.

My mom used to say, "What has happened was good, what is happening right now is for good, and what is going to happen in future is also for good". 

1. Stay Patient – Being patient allows you to think beyond and be composed. Trust the process and hold on to it.
2. Keep moving forward – Don't stop; no matter what happens in life, keep moving forward. Don't rest until you succeed. 

Because like I said before 

"Life is not happening to you; it is happening for you."