Stop Connecting The Dots and Start Trusting The Universe
As Steve Jobs said — “You Can Only Connect The Dots Backward”
I grew up listening to this one phrase — everything happens for a reason. It was a hard pill to swallow when you see your parents fighting every day or when you lose your loved ones to fatal diseases.
How do you trust God or the universe when you're getting heartbroken when your family is getting ripped off? How can things happen for a reason when it’s physically and emotionally crushing you? You either need to be a blind devotee or an irrational optimistic to believe that it was happening for a reason.
Life is not happening to you; it’s happening for you.
I heard this phrase by Tony Robbins back in 2017. I had no idea what it meant. After reading about his early life and how his challenges made him what he’s today, I got some idea. In his Netflix documentary, I am Not Your Guru; he talks about his mom’s addiction and how it affected his life. His hardship taught him about psychology, which got him into personal development.
He was grateful for his pain, and he thanked his alcoholic mother, who chased him around with a knife. The self-help behemoth is not the only one who gives credit to his challenges for his growth. Oprah often talks about how her getting fired from the news anchor job got her the show that changed her life and ran for 25 years straight.
Then I thought about my challenges, which shaped me into who I am today…
Had my parents stayed together, I wouldn’t have the chance to rekindle my relationship with my mother and followed my dreams to become a designer after dropping out of an engineering degree.
Had I not met my ex for 7 years, I wouldn't have got introduced to Quora, which started my online career.
Had I not got a toxic boss in my first job, I wouldn't know how to treat my employees and how to become a leader.
Had I not gone broke in college, I’d value money and appreciate various jobs I did.
Had I not been betrayed by my closed one, I wouldn't have learned the importance of true friends and people whom I trust with my life.
In retrospect, this sounds so easy. But when it was happening, I felt like I was drowning, and there’s no way back to the shore. I blamed myself for people, for events, and things I had no control over.
There are things that are happening in my life, which I can’t fathom, but I know when I look back, I’ll probably understand why they happened their purpose.
When you are losing control, the universe is in control.
Steve Jobs, in his famous Stanford commencement speech, eloquently explains how he had no idea what he was doing as a clueless young kid would help him design the most valuable company in the world. If he hadn’t dropped out and enrolled himself in that typography class, the world would have missed out on the meticulously designed Apple products. It didn’t make sense then, but a decade later, he could connect the dots.
Who would have thought back then that getting Jobs fired from the company he built would give birth to Pixar Animation Studios?
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”
— Steve Jobs
Instead of wondering about the reason it’s happening to you, focus on living your best and giving your 100% to the situation.
Life is not happening to you; it’s happening for you!
