I have been meaning to write this for 1.5 years but somehow, it kept getting delayed. Today, as I am rediscovering the power of belief, I resolved to share my story with everyone.

I am a highly qualified and highly motivated woman who is passionate about her dreams, but, a couple of years ago things went a little awry. My husband and I were moving back to India after spending quality time in another country. We were incredibly happy about moving back home but also highly apprehensive about how the move would pan out for both our careers. It was a gutsy move and the only thing that kept us going was my unshakeable belief that all would be well; a belief I held on to until I started speaking to people.

The more ‘friends’ I spoke to, the more disheartened I became. I was told, I would find it hard to find a job, that I would have to take a 50% pay cut, that I would have to start from the bottom. Also there were some companies who were hiring women just to improve their gender ratio and that would be my best bet to get my dream job. How insulting to be asked to apply for a role not because of my qualifications, but because of my gender! To cut a long story short, I was told I would have to give up almost all my dreams to just get a job. Something within me was crushed. I was humiliated publicly at an ‘interview’ and was reduced to thinking of myself as unemployable. I didn’t believe in myself anymore. I hated myself, threw massive pity parties for myself and couldn’t stop crying for days on end. I was a mess. And my family and friends didn’t know how to help me. I was hurting internally, and my misery caused pain to all those who love me. It was a terrible time.

The most baffling part for my loved ones and me was that for someone with my qualifications and experience, a great job was expected and taken for granted. I belong to two of the country’s finest educational institutions and have fantastic experience in the industry I wanted to be a part of. I struggled to understand why no one seemed to value me or my skills. My amazing husband soon came to my rescue, though. He helped me realize that with all the negativity from others, I didn’t believe in myself anymore. He asked me this profound question, “If you have no respect or belief in yourself, how do you expect anyone else to?”. He continued, “You’re amazingly talented, so act and feel that way. Others will automatically recognize your worth”. I was shocked at how blind I was to my own attitude. I had been flouting my own philosophy everyday and had eroded my own confidence. I just wanted a job, any job, instead of the career I had worked so hard to build, and I was terrified of rejection day in and day out. Result? I ended up being rejected for all the lower positions I had been applying to.

After my husband’s powerful question, I decided to figure out what it was that I really wanted and why my attitude had become so negative. After a couple of days of introspection, I decided that I was sick of the world telling me what I would get and instead decided to go after what I believed I deserved. I went to a nearby cafe and in one page, writing with absolute passion and defiant tears, I made a list of all that I wanted in my next job. Not what I was told was realistic, but what I dreamt of. I next went to my bank and pulled out a a few cheque-deposit slips and filled them up with imaginary deposits made out to me from my amazing new dream company. I kept these slips in my wallet and looked at them every day. I wrote my role, my salary and my employer on them as well as the date of receipt. I dated them to September 14, 2015. I decided I was just going to act with confidence and belief. Everyone around me was delighted to see the overnight change in my attitude.

And what happened next was an absolute miracle. My husband asked me to join him and a couple of his friends for coffee the next day. I didn’t want to go at first, but my husband convinced me to get out of the house and meet new people. I went there and once I entered, he accidentally bumped into a good old friend of his whom he hadn’t spoken to in a long time. That man joined our table and we all got talking. It turned out that this friend of my husband’s was working at one of the companies I had listed as a dream company and he knew of an open position in his team that fit my profile perfectly. He asked for my resume and told me not to apply online, as he could get my resume directly to the hiring manager.

The next day, after sending in my resume, I got a call from the hiring manager, asking if I were free to interview. Of course I was!! Three weeks later, I had a job offer from this dream company. The date was September 15, 2015 , one day after the date I wrote down on my dream cheques! The salary was 30% more than I had written down on my imaginary cheque deposit slips and the stock options were amazing!

After being told by all the world that I wouldn’t make it, I clung to the strength of my own belief and just asked for what I wanted and went after it with faith. And it all happened in 3 weeks. I was at home with my family when I got the call about the offer and I just broke down and cried tears of gratitude. I did it! Somewhere, deep in my heart I knew from the moment my husband’s friend told me about this position, that it would be mine. The best part? I had written down in my wishlist that I wanted to move to my new city by September 30. We moved on September 28th ! Everything in my dream had come true. All because I threw caution to the winds, listened to my heart and decided to blindly believe.

I hope this story inspired or helps even one person to get up, shake off the dust of doubt that is clouding their minds and just believe in the power of their dreams. Ask, believe and receive. It truly works! God bless you all.

PS: I found out after joining my company that the decision to hire me was made on September 14, the date I had written down on my cheques. How amazing is that?