Did you ever stop at a high point or low point in your life and ask, “How did I get here?” How did I end up living in this town? In this house? Wearing these clothes? In this job? Unemployed? Married to this person? Single?

I remember being 28 years old and standing in the middle of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in Uganda staring into the eyes of this mountain gorilla and wondering that very thing.  How did a girl from Philly end up looking at one of the last 620 mountain gorillas in the world? How did she even know how many there were? Wasn’t she just seven years old, running barefoot, playing wall ball with her cousins?

That moment in Uganda was a high point. And I have asked myself the same question at what I thought were the low points.  No matter where you feel you are in life, remember, you are exactly where you are supposed to be at this moment.  Everything has brought you here.  Even as you read these words, you are supposed to be reading them at this moment.

So now I’m going to tell you a secret formula:

E + R = O

Event + Reaction = Outcome

Hubba-wha?

So, it’s not a secret formula. It’s Jack Canfield’s formula.  He’s the author of The Success Principles.  The idea is this: events happen.  You usually cannot control those events.  So what can you control? Your reaction. Your reaction to any event impacts the outcome. Try it in the small moments and in the “big decision” moments. Pay attention.

And you just might find yourself on the adventure of a lifetime–in small moments and in big ones.